Martin Grant earns Morty Yalovsky Lifetime Achievement Award
Early in his career in physics, thought he had it all figured out.
“When I started, I said to myself ‘well, this is good. Nobody’s going to tell me what to do,” said Grant, Emeritus James ֱ Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Science. “I’ve got the world’s greatest postdoc – me – and I’ll be able to do all the projects that I want to do pretty much by myself.”
“But I quickly realized that if I followed that route, I would be doing a disservice to the students.”
Grant knew that, while he could have done the work himself, students would benefit greatly if they were involved in the hands-on research.
“The downside to that approach is that it’s not all about you anymore,” he said. “The upside is you give students an opportunity to really learn.
“The people I look up to are the people who embrace this idea of the role model, and who are willing to get satisfaction out of other people’s successes and other people’s accomplishments. I hope I’ve lived up to that.”