Igor Grant


Igor Grant is an American psychiatrist. He is Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He is Director of the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program. Grant is the founding Editor of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society and founding co-editor of the journal AIDS and Behavior. His work focuses on effects of HIV and drug use, particularly alcohol, medical marijuana, and methamphetamine. In 2007, he won the Distinguished Lifetime Contribution to Neuropsychology Award from the National Academy of Neuropsychology.

Early life

Grant was born in Shanghai China, spending the early years of his life in what was formerly known as the French Concession, attending primary school at the Ecole Ste Jeanne D'Arc. The Grants emigrated to Vancouver, Canada in 1951. Alexander, who became blind due to an accident in his teens, worked for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, while Antonina worked in mail order sales at Sears, Roebuck. Grant attended Kitsilano High School where he was active in student government and the United Nations club. In 1958 he became one of a group of students who travelled across Canada and the USA to visit the UN after winning public speaking competitions.

Career

After graduating from KHS in 1959 Grant attended the University of British Columbia, earning his doctor of medicine degree in 1966, and receiving several honors including the Frank Horner Medal for the Highest Standing in Medicine. He then went to the University of Pennsylvania. From 1966 to 1967 he did his internship at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, then received his psychiatry training in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He served as Chief Resident in Psychiatry from 1970 to 1971, Instructor in Psychiatry from 1970 to 1972, and was Staff Psychiatrist for Psychiatric Inpatient Service at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania from 1971 to 1972. In 1972, he began his affiliation with the University of California, San Diego and the Veterans Administration Medical Center, San Diego, California. At UCSD Grant rose from Assistant Professor to full Professor in 1982, and Distinguished Professor in 2006. He became Chair of Psychiatry in 2014 and Mary Gilman Marston Professor in Psychiatry in 2016. Grant also is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the San Diego State University. He was a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Neurology University of London for a year in both 1980 and 1987, and Visiting Professor of Immunology at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School (now part of the Imperial College School of Medicine. From 2007 to 2010 he served on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.