Harry Barkus Gray is the Arnold O. Beckman Professor of Chemistry at California Institute of Technology. He was born on November 14, 1935 in Woodburn, Kentucky, United States. Gray received his B.S. in Chemistry from Western Kentucky University in 1957. He began his work in inorganic chemistry at Northwestern University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1960 working under Fred Basolo and Ralph Pearson. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1971), a fellow of the AAAS (1989), and an ACS Fellow (2009). He holds numerous honors, including the National Medal of Science (1986), the Pauling Medal (1986), the American Institute of Chemists gold medal (1990), the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society (1991), the Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2004), and the Othmer Gold Medal (2013). He has published well over 700 research articles and 17 books. In 2013, he received the  Othmer Gold Medal for outstanding contribution to chemistry and science.