Theodore Gray is an award-winning software developer, author, and popularizer of science. Having started out in chemistry, he joined Stephen Wolfram in 1987 in the creation of Mathematica. Gray pioneered the concept of Mathematica notebooks—which serve as the main interface to Mathematica, and have made possible the creation of millions of interactive computable documents. Gray guided Wolfram Research's user interface strategy for 25 years, and was responsible for a sequence of major innovations.
Over the years Gray has developed an independent interest in communicating the thrill and importance of science to a wide audience. He was a Contributing Editor at Popular Science magazine and authored its Gray Matter column for a decade, winning the National Magazine Award for the How 2.0 section containing his column in 2003, and becoming a finalist for his own National Magazine award in 2010. In 2011 he was awarded the American Chemical Society’s National Award for Communicating Chemistry to the Public. His books have won many awards in China, including The Elements, which was listed by the Ministry of Education in 2012 as one of the “100 books recommended for the youth of China”.
In 2010 Gray founded Touch Press, a publisher of interactive iPad apps, around the publication of his highly acclaimed app The Elements, featured in countless Apple promotions and television commercials. Touch Press went on to develop dozens of highly regarded interactive titles, include Apple's 2013 iPad App of the Year, the BAFTA-award-winning Disney Animated, written and directed by Gray.
Gray is the author of the print book trilogy The Elements (2009), Molecules (2014), and Reactions (2017), and of Mad Science, Mad Science 2, and Completely Mad Science. He is also the proprietor of periodictable.com and the creator of the iconic photographic periodic-table poster seen in universities, schools, museums, and on TV shows from MythBusters to z. His most recent venture is a retreat from the virtual and return to the physical, in the form of laser-cut acrylic models at mechanicalgifs.com.
Gray lives in Urbana, Illinois and is currently working on a new book, “Things”.
