Wolfram Research
Wolfram Research, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational company that creates computational technology. Wolfram's flagship product is the technical computing program Wolfram Mathematica, first released on June 23, 1988. Other products include Wo ...
, science author, and co-founder of app developer
Touch Press
Touchpress was an acclaimed app developer and publisher based in Central London. The company specialised in creating in-depth premium apps on educational subjects including the Periodic Table, Beethoven, the Solar System, T.S. Eliot, Shakespea ...
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
in
chemistry
Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
from
University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
in 1986.
Career
In 1987, Gray left a PhD program in theoretical chemistry at the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
to work with
Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram (; born 29 August 1959) is a British-American computer scientist, physicist, and businessman. He is known for his work in computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics. In 2012, he was named a fellow of the American Ma ...
. In that same year, he co-founded
Wolfram Research
Wolfram Research, Inc. ( ) is an American multinational company that creates computational technology. Wolfram's flagship product is the technical computing program Wolfram Mathematica, first released on June 23, 1988. Other products include Wo ...
. His initial work for the company involved creating the user interface for
Mathematica
Wolfram Mathematica is a software system with built-in libraries for several areas of technical computing that allow machine learning, statistics, symbolic computation, data manipulation, network analysis, time series analysis, NLP, optimizat ...
. Gray would eventually leave Wolfram Research to become a writer and publisher full-time.
After amassing thousands of samples of elements, he assembled them into a four-legged physical table representing the
periodic table
The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the (chemical) elements, is a rows and columns arrangement of the chemical elements. It is widely used in chemistry, physics, and other sciences, and is generally seen as an icon of ch ...
. 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. 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 ''Elements Vault.''
For many years, Gray wrote a regular column for ''
Popular Science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
'' entitled "Gray Matter". The column was a finalist for a National Magazine Award for Best Column in 2010. 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.'' A sequel to the book, ''Mad Science 2: Experiments You Can Do At Home, But STILL Probably Shouldn't'' was published in 2013.
In 2010, Gray founded
Touch Press
Touchpress was an acclaimed app developer and publisher based in Central London. The company specialised in creating in-depth premium apps on educational subjects including the Periodic Table, Beethoven, the Solar System, T.S. Eliot, Shakespea ...
together with Max Whitby, John Cromie and
Stephen Wolfram
Stephen Wolfram (; born 29 August 1959) is a British-American computer scientist, physicist, and businessman. He is known for his work in computer science, mathematics, and theoretical physics. In 2012, he was named a fellow of the American Ma ...
shortly after the announcement of the launch of the iPad. 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," and in 2014 Gray released "Molecules", which allows users to touch and discover the basic building blocks of the world. 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". The app won a BAFTA award in 2014.
Gray also co-founded Pale Gray Labs with Nina Paley.
Gray has developed a range of
acrylic
Acrylic may refer to:
Chemicals and materials
* Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound
* Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity
* Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...
model kits, which he named "Mechanical GIFs" (as a nod to animated drawings on the internet), to show "how common and uncommon machines, mechanisms, gadgets, and devices work".Mechanical Gifs /ref>
In July 2018, Gray was invited to Beijing on behalf of The Newton Project by its founder, Jizhe Xu, to serve as a consulting advisor.
Throughout his career, Gray has been an advocate for a broader engagement between the scientific community and the public at large.
Works
*''How Things Work: The Inner Life of Everyday Machines'',
Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers
Black Dog & Leventhal (and its imprint Tess Press) is a book publisher located in New York City. The company was founded by J.P. Leventhal in 1992 or 1993. It publishes general non-fiction but is best known for comprehensive illustrated informati ...
, 2019, 256pp.
*''Reactions: An Illustrated Exploration of Elements, Molecules, and Change in the Universe'', Black Dog & Leventhal, 2017, 240pp.
* ''Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything'', Black Dog & Leventhal, 2014, 240pp.
* ''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.
* (with photographer Nick Mann) ''The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe'', Black Dog & Leventhal, 2009, 240pp.
* ''Theo Gray's Mad Science: Experiments You Can Do At Home—But Probably Shouldn't'', Black Dog & Leventhal, 2009, 240pp.
* (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.
See also
*
Amateur chemistry Amateur chemistry or home chemistry is the pursuit of chemistry as a private hobby. Amateur chemistry is usually done with whatever chemicals are available at disposal at the privacy of one's home. It should not be confused with clandestine chemist ...
*
List of Ig Nobel Prize winners
This is a list of Ig Nobel Prize winners from 1991 to the present day.
A parody of the Nobel Prizes, the Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded each year in mid-September, around the time the recipients of the genuine Nobel Prizes are announced, for ten ach ...