Sponsored by the CSC Physical, Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Division, University of Toronto, Department of Chemistry and Xerox Canada
The John C. Polanyi Award is presented for excellence by a scientist carrying out research in Canada in physical, theoretical or computational chemistry or chemical physics.
Edward R. Grant, MCIC
The University of British Columbia
Edward R. Grant is Professor of Chemistry and Physics & Astronomy at the University of British Columbia. He joined the UBC faculty in 2005, moving from Purdue University. While at Purdue, he served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of SpectraCode, Inc. At UBC, he was Department Head from 2005-10. He began his academic career at Cornell University, where from 1977 to 1986, he rose from Assistant to Associate Professor of Chemistry.
Grant has held visiting positions at the Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas, the Technical University of Munich, the CNRS Laboratoire Aimé Cotton and as a Fellow of the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics at the University of Colorado. In 2012, he was a Humboldt Fellow at the Max-Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden.
Grant’s research on the spectroscopy and dynamics of highly excited molecules has been recognized by a Fulbright Senior Fellowship, an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for Senior U.S. Scientists and the Nobel Laureate Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry. He has won an R&D 100 Award, a Tibbetts Award, and a Henry Ford Technology Award. He twice earned the Arthur E. Kelly Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and was recognized as One of the Ten Best Teachers in the School of Science of Purdue University. He has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society.