After nearly 41 years of dedicated service in the Physics and Astronomy program, Dr. Grant Hart is going out with a bang — or rather, a launch. Many professors might celebrate their retirement more quietly: a nice dinner, perhaps, or maybe a small get-together. But for a plasma physicist turned acoustics researcher, it was only fitting that Dr. Grant Hart spend some of his last months as a professor gathering acoustic data from the Artemis II rocket launch.
Dr. Grant Hart (Second from left), and Dr. Kent Gee (left), and several of their research students at the Artemis II Rocket Launch
Dr. Hart hasn’t always surfed the sound waves, though. After getting a bachelor’s degree in physics from BYU and earning a doctorate in plasma physics from the University of Maryland, he worked on nuclear fusion in the labs at Princeton University. The call to Rise and Shout came only a few years later, and Dr. Hart has been a Physics & Astronomy professor at BYU ever since. For most of his career, he continued to focus on plasma physics research, but later transitioned to conducing acoustics research with Dr. Kent Gee in 2019.
Most BYU physics students, however, know Dr. Hart not as the sound researcher, but as the teacher of that really fun lab class — you know, the one that made them fall in love with physics. When asked what his favorite part of being a professor was, Dr. Hart immediately responded, “Working with the students, that’s no doubt.” There’s even less doubt that many of the thousands of students Dr. Hart has taught over his long tenure would feel similarly. Dr. Hart recalled running into former students all over the country who still remembered taking his PHSCS 105 and 106 classes. Other students might fondly recall long afternoons (or even longer mornings) spent with Dr. Hart troubleshooting LabVIEW code, blowing the smoke off yet another Arduino Nano, or trying not to blow up a capacitor in one of the physics laboratory classes he taught.
Dr. Hart’s biggest piece of advice to future BYU physics students might be summed up as: “Don’t stress out about research!” While many students are worried about establishing their future careers based on the research they perform as an undergraduate, Dr. Hart emphasized that this doesn’t always happen. He explained that the data analysis skills and research techniques you learn carry over to many different areas of physics. Even graduate research doesn't set your path in stone. If you need any proof, Dr. Hart says, just look at his own career! If he can switch to acoustics after 42 years spent studying plasma physics, there’s no reason to stress about closing any doors when choosing your research topics.
So, what’s next for an erstwhile physics professor? Dr. Hart has one goal at the front of his mind: serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! Of course, he and his wife would also love to visit their thirteen children and numerous grandchildren — but Dr. Hart, having spent 41 years as a professor at BYU learning, is now ready to go forth to serve.
We at the BYU Physics and Astronomy department would like to thank Dr. Hart for a life spent dedicated to teaching others about the Creator’s universe. While we are sad to see him go, we wish Dr. Hart the best in this new chapter of his life.
Student Authors: Shane LeBaron, McKenzie Leininger, Regal Ledbetter
Edited by Brian Anderson
