Chair Professor for Image Science at the Center of Image Science at Danube University since 2005. More than 350 lectures and keynotes at conferences worldwide, including Olympic Games culture program and G-20 Summit.
Grau's “Virtual Art. From Illusion to Immersion”, MIT Press 2003 (Book of the Month Scientific American) is with approx. 2000+ citations internationally the most quoted art history monography since 2000 (H-Index), it received 90+ reviews. It offered for the first historic evolution in image-viewer theory of immersion and a systematic analysis of the triad of artist, artwork and beholder in digital art.
He has received several awards and his publications are translated in 15 languages. His main research is in histories of media art, immersive images, art and emotion, the history of telepresence, artificial life and digital humanities.
Grau was founding director of the MediaArtHistories Conference Series, (Banff 2005, Berlin07, Melbourne09, Liverpool11, Riga13, Montreal15, Krems/Vienna17, Aalborg19, Venice22). The volume MediaArtHistories, MIT Press 2007, received 50+ international reviews. "Imagery in the 21st Century", MIT-Press 2011 opened the field of Image Science. Recently: Museum and Archive on the Move (2017), Digital Art under the Looking Glas (2019) and Retracing Political Dimensions (2021)
He conceived new Digital Humanities tools for image science and directed the project "Immersive Art" of the German Research Foundation (DFG) developing the first international archive for digital art (ADA, since 1998) recently funded by FWF and bmbwf with 1,1 Mio Euro. Since 2005 Grau is also head of the of the Goettweig Graphic Print Online-Collection, Austria's largest private collection with 30.000 works, from Duerer to Klimt.
Grau developed new international curricula: MediaArtHistories MA, Image Science, Digital Collection Management, the EU supports the MediaArtsCultures Program with 5.5 Mio. Euro. 2005 Grau was elected member of the Young Academy of the BBAW & Leopoldina, 2015 he was elected into the Academia Europaea, 2014 he received a doctor h.c., in 2016 a symposium in honor of his research was held in Tel Aviv and 2019 he received the Science Award of L. Austria.