Gray elected chair of largest U.S. philanthropy

Hanna Gray, President Emeritus and the Harry Pratt Judson Distinguished Service Professor in History, has been elected chairman of the trustees of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, effective Nov. 4. The institute is the largest philanthropic organization in the United States.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute is a medical research organization that has assets of $10 billion and an annual budget in excess of $500 million. The institute currently awards more than $85 million each year through its complementary grants program to support science education in the United States at every level, from elementary school through postdoctoral training.

Gray, who was President of the University from 1978 to 1993, is also chairman of the board of trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and serves on several other boards. In 1991, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, and in 1993 she received the Jefferson Medal from the American Philosophical Society.

She continues to teach at the University, and in 1996 she received the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.