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Paul Edward Gray, 1932-2017

Paul E. Gray
Paul Edward Gray, 1932-2017 , B.S. 1954, S.M. 1955, Sc.D. 1960, in electrical engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was an instructor at MIT, 1957-1960, assistant professor, 1960-1964, and associate professor, 1964-1967; he became professor in 1967 and was MIT Class of 1922 Professor of Electrical Engineering, 1968-1971. He was associate dean for student affairs, 1965-1967; associate provost, 1969-1970; dean of the School of Engineering, 1970-1971; and chancellor, 1971-1980. He was the fourteenth president of MIT, 1980-1990, and chairman of the MIT Corporation, 1990-1997. After his retirement from the chairmanship, he resumed his teaching and advising activities. Among the programs at MIT that he helped to establish are the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP), the Leaders for Manufacturing Program, and the affiliation with the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research. He was chairman of the Task Force on Educational Opportunity, 1968-1973, and encouraged curriculum reforms in the 1980s that strengthened the humanities, social sciences, and biology in the undergraduate curriculum.

His public service includes four years on the White House Science Council and membership on the Council’s Panel on the Health of Universities; he was also vice chairman of the Council on Competiveness. His field of research is semiconductor electronics and circuit theory. He is the author of two basic texts, The Dynamic Behavior of Thermoelectric Devices (1960) and Introduction to Electronics (1967), and co-author of five other books including a major text, Electronic Principles: Physics, Models and Circuits (1969), written with Campbell L. Searle of MIT.

Prepared by the Institute Archives now part of Distinctive Collections, MIT Libraries
November 1995; updated 2005; updated October 2020 

Photograph courtesy of the MIT Museum

History of the Office of the MIT President