Grant Varnau

I became involved in SPS as a junior in the Physics Department at San Diego State University. I eventually became the President the SDSU SPS Chapter and worked to provide free tutoring hours for introductory physics, as well as organize industry and community outreach events. Once inducted as a member of Sigma Pi Sigma, I worked to engage Alumni from the SDSU SPS chapter with current physics majors to connect over career possibilities in academia, industry, and government.

After graduating from San Diego State University with a BS in Physics I began my PhD in Chemical Physics at the University of Arizona. My research focuses on the interfaces of physics, chemistry, and biology, specifically working towards the Quantum Biology hypothesis; the idea that quantum mechanical coherence phenomena govern certain aspects of biology. I am still working on my PhD as a graduate student and when I’m not working on research I teach chemical instrumentation labs to undergraduate chemistry students.

I am interested in joining the Alumni Engagement Program because I want to show other physics students the possibilities outside of physics. A physics degree is incredibly versatile and physicists are needed in many fields for our ability to think through complex problems based on their fundamentals. Working in chemical and biological physics has given me an appreciation for how the language of physics spans many disciplines in science and I want to share that with others.

SPS Alumni Information

SPS Chapter: San Diego State University

Grant Varnau is available for student engagement in the following categories: mentoring, in-person speaker, virtual speaker, tour opportunities, job shadowing. Send a request using this form .

Alum Location: Tucson, Arizona
Education Level: Bachelors
Disciplines: chemical, atomic, condensed matter, materials, molecular, optics

Job Sector: academia
Recent position: Graduate Researcher, University of Arizona
Job Description: As a graduate researcher, I spend my time working in the lab and teaching. Our research develops nonlinear ultrafast spectroscopy techniques to understand the first femto and picoseconds of energy and charge transfer events that occur in biological and condensed matter. My work focuses on pigment-protein and molecular aggregates to understand their fundamental photophysics. This work will provide the basis for engineering better solar cell technology and offer physical insights to alternative energy. As a teaching assistant, I teach an introductory chemistry lab designed for chemistry and engineering majors which focuses on instrumentation and quantitative analysis. In this lab, I use a very physics-based approach to understanding chemical phenomena and how the various instruments can detect and quantify different substances.