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Paul Gray named 2010 IEEE Founders Medal recipient

MIT’s 14th president lauded for his range of contributions
President emeritus Paul Gray has been named the recipient of the 2010 IEEE Founders Medal.
Caption:
President emeritus Paul Gray has been named the recipient of the 2010 IEEE Founders Medal.

MIT President Emeritus Paul E. Gray has been named the recipient of the 2010 IEEE Founders Medal in recognition of his “exemplary career of leadership in education, research and public policy,” the IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional association, recently announced.

The IEEE Founders Medal is given each year to an individual or to a group of up to three people. It is given, according to IEEE, “for outstanding contributions in the leadership, planning, and administration of affairs of great value to the electrical and electronics engineering profession.”

“We applaud IEEE for awarding the Founders Medal to Paul Gray,” said MIT President Susan Hockfield, “for more than four decades of innovative thinking and visionary leadership in advancing engineering education. At every stage in his career, from instructor to professor, president to chairman of the MIT Corporation, Paul Gray has served as both a role model for rising engineers and a pioneer in designing new ways to teach them. With dedication, humanity, integrity and courage, he championed bold new principles and approaches that continue to shape how engineering is taught and practiced around the world."

Gray has been at MIT almost continuously for more than half a century. He earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering starting in 1954 and then rose through the faculty ranks to become professor in 1967. Gray held several administrative roles ranging from associate dean to chancellor before becoming MIT's 14th president in 1980. After stepping down as president, Gray served as chair of the Corporation from 1990 to 1997 and then resumed his teaching and advising activities. He is a professor of electrical engineering, emeritus.

Recent MIT recipients of the Founders Medal include Institute Professor and Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering 
Mildred Dresselhaus (2004) and alumnus and MIT Corporation member Raymond S. Stata (2003).

Gray will be awarded his medal at the 2010 IEEE Honors Ceremony on June 26 in Montreal, Canada.

Through its more than 375,000 members in 160 countries, IEEE is a leading authority on a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power and consumer electronics. Dedicated to the advancement of technology, IEEE publishes 30 percent of the world’s literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science fields.

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