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Robert M. Gray

American information theorist

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 31, 2026
Entity authorityQ7347125 ↗
Source-derived summary

Robert M. Gray (born November 1, 1943) is an American information theorist, and the Alcatel-Lucent Professor of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. He is best known for his contributions to quantization and compression, particularly the development of vector quantization.

Awards

In 1980, Gray was elevated to the grade of IEEE fellow for contribution to information and communication theory. Gray received the 2008 Claude E. Shannon Award from the IEEE Information Theory Society, for his fundamental contributions to information theory, particularly in the area of quantization theory. He was also the recipient of the 2008 IEEE Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Medal, the 1998 Golden Jubilee Award for Technological Innovation from the IEEE Information Theory Society, the 1993 IEEE Signal Processing Society Award, and the 1984 IEEE Centennial Medal. Gray received the 2002 Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring from the National Science Foundation. In 2020 he received both, The Okawa Prize for his seminal research in information coding theory and data compression, and enormous contributions to the promotion of diversity in engineering education, and IEEE Aaron D. Wyner Distinguished Service Award for his outstanding leadership in, and providing long standing, exceptional service, to the Information Theory community.

Gray was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2007 for contributions to information theory and data compression.

He received the IEEE Third Millennium Medal in 2000.

Early life

Born in 1943 in San Diego, Gray grew up in Coronado, California.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Robert M. Gray” as american information theorist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Robert, Gray and American.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1943, 1980, 2008, 1998—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1943-11-01. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Robert, Gray and American providing the first useful test.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7347125. VIAF identifies the subject as 67679696. The Library of Congress control number is n82041025. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1943, 1980, 2008 and 1998.

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This entry incorporates text from “Robert M. Gray” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.