Hertz Fellow, Grant I. Gillary, Receives Hertz Foundation-George Lerman Fellowship

LIVERMORE, Calif., Sept. 20, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation today announced that Grant I. Gillary, a second year graduate student in neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University, has received the Hertz Foundation-George Lerman Fellowship valued at $50,000 annually. Gillary is a 2011 Hertz Fellow.

"We are pleased to announce this Fellowship," stated Dr. Jay Davis, president of the Hertz Foundation, "and we are deeply grateful to David and Louis Lerman for providing much-deserved support for Grant Gillary. Grant is a definitive Hertz Fellow: Multi-talented, brilliant and courageous. He has a strong desire to serve this Nation, merging his considerable leadership experiences and his technical background in pursuit of new breakthroughs in biotechnology."

Gillary graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics.  During junior and senior years he completed a Trident Scholar research project studying a basis set of vector fields for currents in the Chesapeake Bay. He graduated as Salutatorian in May of 2005 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.

His undergraduate thesis research sparked an interest in computational mathematics and led to his subsequent study of Mathematical Modeling and Scientific Computing at The University of Oxford as a Fulbright Scholar from 2005-2006.  There he completed a thesis studying Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods for the integration of high dimensional probability distributions.  He completed his Master of Science in the fall of 2006 at which time the Marine Corps sent him to Fes, Morocco, to study Modern Standard Arabic at the Arabic Language Institute in Fes. From early 2007 through mid 2008, Gillary completed his initial Marine Corps officer training.  He graduated from the Ground Intelligence Officer Course receiving the Brent L. Morel Award for the honor graduate and the Terrence C. Graves Leadership Award; he was the only student to receive both awards in the course's ten-year history. 

Immediately upon completion of his schooling, Gillary was assigned as the intelligence advisor for a military transition team and completed a seven-month deployment to Iraq as the intelligence advisor for the Fifth Brigade, Iraqi Department of Border Enforcement.  Upon return from Iraq, he was promoted to Captain and took command of Second Platoon, Bravo Company, First Reconnaissance Battalion, First Marine Division (Fwd) and deployed to combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan from May-December 2010.  He received a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal with Combat Distinguishing Device for his actions in Afghanistan. His proudest moment was returning from seven-months of intense combat operations with all of his Marines alive. 

The Hertz Foundation-George Lerman Fellowship is named by David and Louis Lerman for their father, George Lerman, MD, who has had a military, medical, and physics career of considerable depth. Dr. Lerman holds graduate degrees in physics, medicine, and economics.  Early on he served as the first chief of space medicine for the US space program where he was responsible for the original seven Mercury astronauts. Dr. Lerman worked on both the human and hardware issues of manned spaceflight.  "George is a delightful raconteur of history, economics, and the human condition," continued Dr. Davis. "In his active 'retirement' George timeshares between high tech startups (with patents pending) and finishing his PhD studies in physics at Stanford."

For nearly a half century, the Hertz Foundation has fostered America's strength by finding the best and brightest from the applied physical, biological and engineering sciences. Considered the Nation's most generous support for graduate education in these disciplines, the Hertz Fellowship is valued at more than a quarter million dollars per student, with support lasting up to five years. Fellows have the freedom to innovate in their doctoral studies without university or research restrictions. During the past decade, the Hertz Foundation has supported the Hertz Fellows to build the Hertz Fellows Community for all ages and discipline to gather together, to inspire one another and to collaborate across disciplines. This further augments the powerful contribution they bring to society.

More Information about the Hertz Foundation, visit: https://www.hertzfoundation.org/

SOURCE The Fannie and John Hertz Foundation