PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

Alasdair J. G. Gray

Also known as A. J. G. Gray, A.J.G. Gray, Alasdair Gray

Alasdair Gray is a computer scientist whose work connects data across environmental science, pharmacology and research. He coauthored a semantic sensor web for flood planning and helped conceive Heriot-Watt’s Semantic Web Lab. He coauthored work on the Open PHACTS platform and Validata, contributed to the FAIR Data Principles, and investigated natural language processing with knowledge graphs for building regulations. As of October 2026, he is a Principal Data Architect at TPXimpact, where he works on data transformation and cataloguing projects.

Now at
TPXimpact and Heriot-Watt University
Works
191
Citations
21,865
h-index
23
Badges
Links
Website, X and GitHub

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 22 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 2011

    A semantic sensor web

    In 2011, he coauthors a semantic sensor web architecture that joins live and historic sensor data with databases and map layers. The team demonstrates it in a flood-response planning web application.

  2. 2014

    Open PHACTS for pharmacology

    In 2014, he coauthors an article on the Open PHACTS Discovery Platform, which uses Linked Data to integrate pharmacology databases. The platform handles over 13.5 million accesses between its launch in April 2013 and March 2014.

  3. 2014

    Planning the Semantic Web Lab

    In 2014, he and Fiona McNeil conceive the Heriot-Watt Semantic Web Lab at the ISWC conference banquet. The lab is based in the Department of Computer Science.

  4. 2015

    The Validata tool

    In 2015, he coauthors Validata, an online application that validates RDF documents against Shape Expressions (ShEx) schemas. It supports multiple requirement levels and can be reused with new schemas for other deployments.

  5. 2016

    FAIR Data Principles

    In 2016, Heriot-Watt research involving Gray contributes substantially to defining the FAIR Data Principles and leads to a global Health Care and Life Sciences community recommendation for dataset descriptions. The principles set criteria for discovering, retrieving, understanding and reusing research data.

  6. 2021

    Associate Professor at Heriot-Watt

    In 2021, he is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Heriot-Watt University.

  7. 2021

    SPaR.txt and building rules

    In 2021, he and colleagues investigate using natural language processing and knowledge graphs to extract requirements from UK building regulations. SPaR.txt, developed by research assistant Ruben Kruiper, extracts terms with little training from machine-readable Scottish rules.

  8. As of October 2026

    Principal Data Architect

    As of October 2026, he is a Principal Data Architect at TPXimpact, where he works on data transformation and cataloguing projects.

Career

  1. NowTPXimpactPrincipal Data Architect
  2. 2014–2025Heriot-Watt UniversityAssociate Professor of Computer Science
  3. 2009–2014University of Manchester

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

  1. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes Heriot-Watt University. We estimate where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led. Massachusetts Institute of Technology leads with 467 former students, including 291 recorded doctorates.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974Includes Heriot-Watt University. We estimate where the people shaping AI worked when their most-cited papers appeared: the company share was 31% in 2020–2024 and 8% in 1970–1974, and Google led all organizations in 2020–2024.
  3. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other universityIncludes Heriot-Watt University. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology trained or employed 44 of the 187 AI major-prize winners, more than any other university. We compare doctorate and 5+ year employment links, career timing and current workplaces for 187 major-prize and 1,111 best-paper winners.
  4. Google has the highest combined h-index among AI organizationsIncludes University of Manchester. We estimate that Google holds the highest combined h-index at 8,016, while universities account for 73% of the deduplicated total across AI organizations.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

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  1. A semantic sensor web for environmental decision support applications - Research Explorer The University of Manchester research.manchester.ac.uk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  2. API-centric linked data integration: the Open PHACTS discovery platform case study - Heriot-Watt Research Portal researchportal.hw.ac.uk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  3. Semantic Web Lab, Edinburgh swel-edi.github.io. Checked 21 October 2026.
  4. Validata: An online tool for testing RDF data conformance - Heriot-Watt Research Portal researchportal.hw.ac.uk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  5. Making Research Data More Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable - Heriot-Watt Research Portal researchportal.hw.ac.uk. Checked 21 October 2026.
  6. Home | Alasdair J G Gray alasdairgray.github.io. Checked 21 October 2026.
  7. Data cataloguing is hard! - TPXimpact tpximpact.com. Checked 21 October 2026.