Igor Grant (born March 26, 1942) is an American psychiatrist. He is a Distinguished Professor at the University of California, San Diego, in the Department of Psychiatry. He directs both the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Program and the Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. Grant also founded and co-edited major scientific journals, including the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society and AIDS and Behavior. His research examines how HIV and drug use affect behavior and the brain, with a particular focus on alcohol, medical marijuana, and methamphetamine. Igor Grant was born in Shanghai, China, and grew up in the former French Concession area, attending primary school at Ecole Ste Jeanne D’Arc. In 1951, his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where his father later worked for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and his mother worked in mail-order sales. Grant went to Kitsilano High School, became active in student government and a United Nations club, and in 1958 traveled across Canada and the USA to visit the UN after winning public speaking competitions with a speech about Canada’s role in the UN. After graduating from KHS in 1959, Igor Grant studied at the University of British Columbia, earning his medical degree in 1966, followed by further training at the University of Pennsylvania, where he completed an internship and psychiatry training. He held several academic and clinical roles there before starting in 1972 his long career with the University of California, San Diego and the VA San Diego Healthcare System, rising to full professor and later distinguished professor, and serving as chair of the UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry from 2014 to 2019. He also worked as an adjunct professor at San Diego State University and had visiting professorships in London and immunology positions in the UK. Grant’s research studied how diseases and substance abuse affect the brain and behavior. His work showed that long-term abstinence from alcoholism can restore thinking and cognitive functions, and he led early studies on the brain effects of multiple drug use and on how low oxygen and oxygen treatment affect cognition in people with COPD. He also built major research programs on HIV and brain function, helped advance understanding of how stress worsens conditions like multiple sclerosis, and studied how stress in dementia caregivers can increase cardiovascular risk. At the UCSD School of Medicine, Igor Grant helped develop an interdisciplinary core course in Social and Behavioral Sciences, and he co-chaired a task force to create a joint doctoral program in Clinical Psychology between UCSD and SDSU. He has also served as dissertation chair for more than 20 PhD students who went on to build their own academic careers, and he received the Paul Satz International Neuropsychological Society Career Mentoring Award in 2016.

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