WKU Alum Harry Gray To Be Honored As Outstanding Alumnus Of Kentucky At Governor's Conference

September 25, 2008

Bowling Green, Ky. - Dr. Harry B. Gray, a 1957 graduate of Western Kentucky University, is one of three people being recognized as an Outstanding Alumnus of Kentucky.
           
Dr. Gray is the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at the California Institute of Technology and a founding director of The Beckman Institute, a multi-disciplinary research center for chemical and biological sciences. A native of Warren County, Dr. Gray’s expertise in the field of inorganic photo chemistry has placed him among the nation’s leaders in his discipline for more than 40 years. Adding to his pioneering work in biochemistry, he currently serves as the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation Chemical Bonding Center project which looks at the efficient and economical storage of solar energy in the form of chemical bonds, offering the potential to make a considerable contribution toward solving the energy crisis of the 21st century.
           
“I was lucky to be born and raised in Warren County,” Dr. Gray said. “I had really outstanding and caring teachers at 11th Street School, at Bowling Green High School, and at WKU. I enjoyed the enthusiastic support of both faculty and administration all through my career at WKU, and, as a result, I hit the ground running when I started graduate work.”
           
WKU President Gary Ransdell said the OAK Award is a “significant honor for Dr. Gray and for WKU. We were proud to nominate him and will be proud to share this special moment with him.”
The award will be presented on Monday at the 2008 Governor’s Conference on Postsecondary Education Trusteeship in Lexington by Secretary of State Trey Grayson. The awards are sponsored by the Kentucky Advocates for Higher Education, a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of postsecondary education in Kentucky. Other OAK Award recipients are James C. Klotter of the University of Kentucky and Johny B. Russell of Murray State University.
           
The OAK Awards were inaugurated in 1987 to recognize outstanding alumni of Kentucky colleges and universities. Recipients of the OAK award hold an undergraduate degree from a public or independent Kentucky college or university, have achieved national stature and reputation in their chosen career and have exhibited a lifelong affection for, and attachment to, their alma mater and to Kentucky.
           
After earning his bachelor’s of science degree in Chemistry in 1957, Dr. Gray moved to Evanston, Ill., where he began research on inorganic reactions at Northwestern University. He earned his doctorate in 1960 and then spent a year as a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Copenhagen studying the electronic structures of metal complexes. From 1961 to 1966, he was on faculty at Columbia University. In 1966 he moved to the California Institute of Technology.
           
Dr. Gray has set himself apart, becoming a pioneer of bioinorganic chemistry and making a critical contribution to the fundamental understanding of electron transfer in biological systems at the atomic level. He has published his research in more than 730 papers and 17 books and has delivered more than 100 named lectures all over the world. Through his work he has earned many accolades, including induction into the WKU Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 1995 and 16 honorary degrees.
           
Dr. Gray has receive numerous national and international awards, including: the National Medal of Science from President Ronald Reagan (1986); the Linderstrøm-Lang Prize (Denmark,1991); the Gibbs Medal (1994); the Harvey Prize (Israel, 2000); the National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences (2003); the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Chemistry (2004); the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (Israel, 2004); the City of Florence Prize in Molecular Sciences (Italy, 2006); six national awards from the American Chemical Society, including the Priestley Medal (1991); and 16 honorary doctorates.
           
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences; the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the American Philosophical Society; a foreign member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters; the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences; the Royal Society of Great Britain; and the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei (Italy). He was California Scientist of the Year in 1988.      
           
Dr. Gray is married to Dr. Shirley Barnes Gray, who is also a 1957 WKU graduate with a degree in mathematics. The former Homecoming queen earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Southern California and is a tenured full professor at Cal State University-Los Angeles and a member of the Lancaster Fellowship Board at WKU. She has achieved international acclaim for her scholarly work in the history of mathematics and has led a group of students to establish and maintain a national database called the “National Curve Bank Project” that bridges the gap between traditional mathematics instruction and computer media technology. The Grays have been married for 51 years and have three children and three grandchildren.
           
“I have never forgotten that ‘The spirit makes the master,’” Dr. Gray said. “It is a special honor for me and for WKU to receive the OAK Award.”

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