Wayne Gray, acting dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, has been elected a fellow of the Cognitive Science Society.

“Dr. Gray is a world-leading researcher, a wise leader, and certainly deserving of this important recognition from the Cognitive Science Society,” said Rensselaer Provost Robert Palazzo. “His research into profound yet accessible cognitive science issues such as human error, attention spans, and cognitive workloads is leading the way to a better fundamental understanding of the human mind and, in turn, the human condition.”

The Cognitive Science Society applauded Gray and his research for “sustained excellence and … sustained impact on the cognitive science community.”

Gray’s primary research interests include integrated cognitive systems, computational cognitive modeling, and cognitive engineering. He investigates the interplay of cognition, perception, and action in routine interactive behavior.

His recent research focus includes the study of fast-paced action video games to inform computational cognitive models of expert game play as a means to understanding the control problems in real-time interactive behavior; building models of airline pilots who get lost or confused while driving aircraft on the ground from the runway to the gate; and solving the cognitive control of multitasking, interruptions, errors, and other common human behaviors for which creating cognitive models is particularly challenging.

Along with publishing more than 100 journal articles, book chapters, book reviews, and conference proceedings, Gray is editor-in-chief of Topics in Cognitive Science and past associate editor of Cognitive Science, Cognitive Systems Research, Human Factors, and Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction.

Gray is an active member of the cognitive science professional community, chairing and co-chairing several conferences including the Fourth International Conference on Cognitive Modeling and the 2002 Cognitive Science Society Conference. He is also the founding chair of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society’s Human-Performance Modeling Technical Group, as well as a fellow of HFES.

Last year, Gray received the Franklin Taylor Prize from the American Physiological Association (APA) for outstanding contributions in the field of applied experimental and engineering psychology. In 2008, he also received the Recognition Award for Research from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at Rensselaer. Next year, Gray will be the keynote speaker at the 19th Annual Conference on Behavioral Representation in Modeling & Simulation in Charleston, S.C.

Gray joined the Rensselaer faculty in 2002 as a professor in the Department of Cognitive Science. Prior to that, he was a professor at George Mason University and Fordham University.

Gray received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Lafayette College, and went on to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology from University of California at Berkeley.