Directory profile for Dr. Jeff Gray

Dr. Jeff Gray is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science (College of Engineering) at the University of Alabama. He serves as the Director of the Randall Research Scholars Program (Honors College), the oldest interdisciplinary research-based Honors program in the United States. As a first-generation college graduate, he received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Vanderbilt University and also a BS/MS from West Virginia University, where he was a member of the Honors program and graduated summa cum laude in three years. His research interests are in the areas of software engineering, computer science education, programming languages, and human-computer interaction – with a specific interest in opportunities to support interdisciplinary research. Over the past two decades, he has mentored students at the high school (35 projects, with 11 International Science Fair finalists), undergraduate (over 160 student projects with multiple publications and awards), and doctoral (chair of 17 completed Ph.D. dissertations) levels.

With his students and other colleagues (331 different co-authors), his research publication activities include over 100 journal articles and editorials, 18 book chapters, 189 refereed conference and workshop papers, over 130 posters (the majority as undergraduate and high school projects), 10 demonstrations, 21 tutorials, and over 25 panels. His Google Scholar h-index is 45 with over 7,900 citations (20 papers with > 100 citations). Funding to support his research has been granted by the National Science Foundation (multiple awards), DARPA – Defense Advanced Projects Agency (multiple awards), Google (multiple awards), IBM, Air Force, Boeing, College Board (multiple awards), and the Department of Education (multiple awards). There have been 44 funded awards for his research (as PI or co-PI), with a total combined dollar value of over $23M. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Springer’s Journal on Software and Systems Modeling.

Dr. Gray is a National Science Foundation CAREER award recipient and was named the Professor of the Year (Alabama, 2008) by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Jeff is a Distinguished Member of the ACM (the first to receive the classification in the state of Alabama) and a member of the first cohort to be named a Distinguished Contributor of the IEEE Computer Society. He is the 2025 recipient of the University of Alabama System’s McMahon-Pleiad Prize, awarded to a member of the faculty or staff at a UA System entity who has “made significant contributions through teaching, research, and service.” Dr. Gray is also the 2023 recipient of the Mayer Premier Award, awarded to a UA faculty member who demonstrates “selfless and significant service and leadership for the UA community, significant contributions to student life, and integrity.”

Dr. Gray is chair of Alabama Governor Kay Ivey’s Computer Science Advisory Council. He served on the Education Advisory Council of Code.org and is the co-chair of the College Board’s Development Committee for the AP CS Principles course. His passion is advancing K-12 computer science opportunities throughout Alabama and the nation for both students (summer camps, various contests, research mentoring) and teachers (professional development for teaching computer science in all of K-12; he has trained over 2,600 Elementary teachers and through a grant from Google, initiated an online course that prepared over 2,100 high school teachers across that nation for the first year of AP CS Principles). All of these efforts are founded on the need to diversify and broaden participation in computing by offering opportunities for all students. For example, he coordinates the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing awards for young high school women and is the PI for the NSF-sponsored LEGACY project that prepares Black high school girls for the AP CSP course. More information about Dr. Gray, including links to an extended resume/CV, can be found at http://gray.cs.ua.edu