Theodore Gray

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Theodore Gray
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Born (1964-11-18) 18 November 1964 (age 59)
Urbana, Illinois, United States
Nationality American
Fields Mathematics, chemistry, computing, publishing
Institutions Wolfram Research, Touch Press
Alma mater University of Illinois
Known for Co-founder of Wolfram Research
prominent science author
co-founder of Touch Press

Theodore W. "Theo" Gray is a co-founder of Wolfram Research, prominent science author, and co-founder of app developer Touch Press.

Education

Theodore Gray was educated at the University of Illinois Laboratory High School. He would later graduate with a B.S. in chemistry from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign in 1986.[1][self-published source?][2]

Career

In 1987, Gray left a PhD program in theoretical chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley to work with Stephen Wolfram. In that same year, he co-founded Wolfram Research.[3] His initial work for the company involved creating the user interface for Mathematica.[4] Gray would eventually leave Wolfram Research to become a writer and publisher full-time.[5]

After amassing thousands of samples of elements from the periodic table, he assembled them into a four-legged physical table. The finished table was awarded the 2011 ACS Grady Stack Award for Interpreting Chemistry for the Public, as well as the 2002 Ig Nobel Award for Chemistry.[6][7] Gray's love of the periodic table would lead him to team up with photographer Nick Mann in creating "The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe" and "The Elements Vault."[8]

For many years, Gray wrote a regular column for Popular Science entitled "Gray Matter."[9] The column was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for Best Column in 2010.[10] In 2009, a collection of articles by Gray was published under the title Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do at Home—But Probably Shouldn't.[11][12] A sequel to the book, Mad Science 2: Experiments You Can Do At Home, But STILL Probably Shouldn't was published in 2013.[13]

In 2010, Gray founded Touch Press together with Max Whitby, John Cromie and Stephen Wolfram shortly after the announcement of the launch of the iPad.[14][15] The company was created to develop innovative educational apps using the technology of the iPad to its full potential. The first published app was "The Elements,"[16] and in 2014 Gray released "Molecules", which allows users to touch and discover the basic building blocks of the world.[17] Of Touch Press's "Disney Animated," which was named the best iPad app of 2013 worldwide by Apple, iTunes's App Editor noted, "We’re absolutely spellbound."[18]

Belief in popular science

Throughout his career, Gray has been an advocate for a broader engagement between the public at large and the scientific community.[19] Gray's move towards popular science is motivated by his belief in the inherent curiosity of children:

All children are inherently scientists. They’re curious about the world; they’re constantly asking why, why, why, why, why; they want to know how everything works, and why things are the way they are, and that is essentially the definition of science, right? There’s stuff out there, and we want to know why is it that way, and what can we do with it, and what can we do to get something to happen that we want to have happen. And that’s really just built into children, and it has to be beaten out over the course of many years of schooling to get somebody to not be interested in science.[20]

Works

  • Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2014, 240pp. ISBN 1-57912-971-4
  • Theodore Gray's Elements Vault: Treasures of the Periodic Table with Removable Archival Documents and Real Element Samples--Including Pure Gold! Black Dog & Leventhal, 2011, 128pp. ISBN 1-57912-880-7
  • (with photographer Nick Mann) The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2009, 240pp. ISBN 1-57912-814-9
  • Theo Gray's Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do At Home - But Probably Shouldn't, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2009, 240pp. ISBN 1-57912-791-6
  • (with Jerry Glynn) The Beginner's Guide to Mathematica Version 3, Cambridge University Press, 1997, 355pp. lSBN 0521622026
  • Theo Gray's Mad Science 2: Experiments You Can Do At Home, But STILL Probably Shouldn't, Black Dog & Leventhal, 2013, 240pp. ISBN 1-57912-932-3

See also

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[self-published source?]
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Gray Matter, Popular Science.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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