His research interests are in number theory, specifically analysis of L-functions and the Riemann zeta function.

[2][3] Conrey is the founding executive director of the American Institute of Mathematics, a position he has held since 1997.

With Bui and Young, Conrey proved in 2011 that more than 41 percent of the zeros of the Riemann zeta function are on the critical line.

[7] With Jonathan Keating, Nina Snaith, and others, Conrey researched correlations of eigenvalues of random unitary matrices and Riemann zeta zeros.

[8] The American Mathematical Society jointly awarded him the eighth annual Levi L. Conant Prize for expository writing in 2008 for The Riemann Hypothesis.