Friends and colleagues of Jim Gray have arranged a daylong tribute to the noted Microsoft researcher and industry pioneer who disappeared in a mysterious January boating accident near San Francisco.

The May 31 event at University of California -- Berkeley includes presentations on Gray's contributions to the school, colleagues and industry.

Among other speakers, Ed Lazowska from the University of Washington will discuss Gray's mentoring of faculty and students, and Microsoft CTO David Vaskevitch and research boss Rick Rashid will discuss his industry contributions.

Also scheduled is an afternoon of technical presentations on topics identified with Gray, such as Terra Server and transaction processing.

Amazon.com CTO Werner Vogels wrote up the event on his blog today, noting that Gray will be officially listed as "missing" until 2011, but the tribute will be held "to honor him before too much time has passed."

Registration for the technical sessions is open at the tribute's Web site.