Robert M. Gray
Robert Gray is an information theorist whose work on quantization connects signal processing with machine learning. He was born in San Diego in 1943, earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering at MIT in 1966, completed a PhD at USC in 1969, joined Stanford in 1969, and retired from Stanford in April 2013. With Yoseph Linde and Andres Buzo, he published a vector quantizer design algorithm in 1980 and coauthored Vector Quantization and Signal Compression in 1992. His 2006 IEEE Distinguished Lecturer talk explained how quantization can model classification and machine learning; he joined the National Academy of Engineering in 2007, received the Shannon Award in 2008, and received the Okawa Prize in 2020. As of October 2026, he is a research professor at Boston University and professor emeritus at Stanford.
- Now at
- Stanford University and Boston University
- Works
- 472
- Citations
- 39,019
- h-index
- 73
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 15 October 2026.
Timeline
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1943–2013
From San Diego to Stanford
He is born in San Diego in 1943. He earns B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from MIT in 1966 and completes a Ph.D. at USC in 1969. He joins Stanford in 1969 and retires from the university in April 2013; his research covers information theory and signal processing.
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1980
An algorithm for vector quantization
With Yoseph Linde and Andres Buzo, he publishes An Algorithm for Vector Quantizer Design in 1980. The method designs vector quantizers from a probabilistic model or a training sequence, including for speech compression.
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1992
Vector Quantization and Signal Compression
He and A. Gersho publish Vector Quantization and Signal Compression in 1992.
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2006
An IEEE lecture on quantization
In a 2006 IEEE Distinguished Lecturer talk, he explains that quantization can model statistical classification, clustering, and machine learning.
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2007
National Academy election
He joins the National Academy of Engineering in 2007.
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2008
The Claude E. Shannon Award
He receives the Claude E. Shannon Award from the IEEE Information Theory Society in 2008.
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2020
The Okawa Prize
He receives the Okawa Prize from the Okawa Foundation for Information and Telecommunications in 2020.
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As of October 2026
Research professor at Boston University
As of October 2026, he is a research professor in Boston University's Electrical and Computer Engineering department and professor emeritus of electrical engineering at Stanford.
Sources and credits
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- Short Bio
- Alumni Profile (Electrical Engineering) - USC Viterbi | Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Robert M Gray's Profile | Stanford Profiles
- An Algorithm for Vector Quantizer Design
- Distinguished Lecturer
- Stanford University Professor - Robert M. Gray
- Robert Gray, PhD | College of Engineering
- Gray Receives the Okawa Prize | Machine Learning, Information & Data Sciences