The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020 - 22

Professional Profile

Harvard was spent back at IBM designing and constructing
one of the first, if not the first, thin film evaporation
chamber with the capability to measure in-situ reflection
electron diffraction during film growth (RHEED).

Dr. Paul Michael Grant,
BSEE, AM, Ph.D.
Gamma Gamma Chapter,
Clarkson University
Principal, W2AGZ Technologies
Paul Michael Grant was born in Poughkeepsie, NY, on
May 9, 1935, the grandson of Irish immigrants, and grew
up in the mid-Hudson Valley. In 2014, Grant obtained
dual nationality status shared with the United States and
the Republic of Ireland. His father worked for IBM and
his mother for the local utility company, Central Hudson
Gas & Electric, presaging what was to become a lifelong
career filling both parents' shoes.
During the spring term of his senior year in high school,
still only 17, he entered the employ of IBM, commencing
what was to become a 40-year career with the company.
In 1956, recognizing his work performance and abilities,
the Corporation subsequently offered to underwrite his
university attendance while he remained an employee,
leading to a BSEE degree (summa cum laude, 1960)
from Clarkson University and the AM (1961) and
PhD (1966) degrees in Applied Physics from
Harvard University.
While attending Clarkson (1956-60), Dr. Grant returned
to work summers at IBM on thin magnetic film memory
development, silicon epitaxial film growth and laser
spectroscopy. During this period, he carried out research
on magneto-resistive and Hall Effect thin ferromagnetic
film devices, forerunners of today's spintronics
technologies. The summer following his first year at

THE BRIDGE

Dr. Grant later organized and led IBM's Almaden Research
Center's (San Jose, CA) effort in high temperature
superconductivity, discovered five new superconducting
materials, iincluding the structure of the first superconductor
above liquid nitrogen temperature followed by the world
record Tl-2223 125 K material up to 1994, and is a
co-inventor on the basic international patent on high
temperature superconductivity in perovskite materials.
Dr. Grant retired from IBM in 1993 to accept a position
as a Science Fellow at the Electric Power Research
Institute in Palo Alto, CA. In collaboration with Chauncey
Starr, EPRI's Founder, he developed the SuperGrid
concept, a vision of an energy society based on a green,
non-eco-invasive symbiosis of nuclear, hydrogen and
superconducting technologies, supplemented by solar
roof and urban biomass combustion renewables. He
helped structure EPRI's US$38 million Strategic Science
and Technology program, particularly in superconductivity
and advanced semiconductor materials to advance
"Smart Grid" deployment.
He has written more than 130 publications in peer
reviewed literature, more than 50 editorials, popular
articles, commentaries and book reviews and holds
more than 12 US and international patents and
patent publications. He has appeared several times on
television news network productions, e.g., Nova, Horizons
and 60 Minutes.
Dr. Grant continues to advance the SuperGrid Vision and
employing modern computational physics to explore
pathways to room temperature superconducting materials,
as well as determining the pairing mechanism in high
temperature superconducting copper oxide perovskites.
He is a freelance science writer for Nature, Physics World,
Cold Facts, and Power Magazine.
He mentors science students all the way from elementary
school to post-doctoral status with respect to future
careers in industry and government.
Read more about Dr. Grant by clicking here.
http://www.w2agz.com/SG%20-%20SuperGrid%202.htm http://www.w2agz.com/ https://hkn.ieee.org/ https://hkn.ieee.org/
The Bridge - Issue 3, 2020

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