Noted molecular cyberneticist, Dr. Ira Graves was considered by some to be one of the greatest human minds in the universe.

Early in his career, Graves was a teacher to Dr. Noonien Soong, and thus Graves considered himself to be a "grandfather" to the android Data.

Graves spent the last years of his life isolated on a planet he called Gravesworld, where he died in 2365 of Darnay's disease. Just prior to his death, Graves deposited his intellect into Data's positronic brain and this information was later stored in the Enterprise-D's main computer.