Dr. Steven M. Grimes, a renowned, decades-spanning physics educator and researcher at Ohio State University, first gravitated his field at a young age. Growing up, he helped his father—who was an engineer—design the family house, a rigorous process during which they discussed heating, cooling, and electrical connections; through this experience, he became interested in physics and engineering. He then had a very effective and influential high school physics teacher, who encouraged new ways of thinking and understanding. Throughout the 1960s, he dedicated himself to his education, earning a Bachelor of Science from Stanford University and both a master’s and a PhD from the University of Wisconsin. In 1968, he completed postdoctoral coursework at the University of Basel in Switzerland.

Dr. Grimes launched his career as a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California in 1971 and later moved into the role of a consultant in 1981, a post he still holds to this day. Additionally, he lent his expertise to Ohio University for the first time, as a visiting professor from 1978 to 1979 before joining the full-time faculty in 1985 as a physics professor, researcher, and director of the Edwards Accelerator Lab. He has also been a physicist with the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico since 1985 and taught for a year at the University of Kentucky. In 2007, he was honored by Ohio University as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of physics and astronomy.

A renowned mind in the field of physics, Dr. Grimes has served as the editor of such books as “Neutron-Nucleus Collisions” and “Moment Methods” and has refereed more than 350 papers, as well as conducted research in his specialized area of nuclear astrophysics and published almost 200 papers. As a testament to these contributions, he was recognized as an Outstanding Referee by the American Physical Society in 2008.  Outside of his primary endeavors, Dr. Grimes has been civically active as a board member of the community organization Athens Village, which strives to make life more pleasant for people over 60.