10
BAMOS
Dec 2018
Obituary
Vale Dr. Grant Carleton Edwards
Prepared by Paul J. Beggs and Mae Sexauer Gustin
Dr. Grant Carleton Edwards, loving husband of Tanya Bradley
and father to Joshua and Meagan, passed away suddenly on
Monday 10 September 2018 in Sydney, Australia. Grant was a
dedicated and respected academic at Macquarie University,
previous Associate Professor at University of Guelph, Canada,
and research scientist at Agriculture Canada and Ontario
Hydro. A service was recently held in Canada, and Grant was
laid to rest, next to his parents, in Apsley, Ontario, on Saturday
22 September 2018. This grave-side service was followed by a
celebration of his life at Riley’s Pub in Peterborough, Ontario, a
small city where Grant grew up. A celebration of Grant’s life here
in Australia was also held, at the Bavarian Beer Café (previously
St Andrew’s Church) in Parramatta, Sydney, on Wednesday
17 October 2018. Grant had a gentle nature and sociable
personality, he was a master chef in the kitchen, and he was
passionate about Jaguars.
Grant’s research passion was measuring fluxes of trace gases
including mercury, nitrous oxide, methane, and volatile organic
compounds. He was a creative scientist who loved working on
developing methods to measure fluxes. Grant enjoyed building
and fixing instruments, and was very much a hands-on person. At
Macquarie he had developed a trace metal mercury laboratory
that was fully operational, and generating very interesting data.
Through collaborations with the University of Nevada-Reno, he
had developed a method to measure reactive gaseous mercury
fluxes. He had many collaborators during his time in Canada
and some that were still ongoing. He had developed quite a
network of colleagues across Australia for measuring mercury
fluxes and air concentrations. This included working with CSIRO
Oceans and Atmosphere, to monitor elemental and reactive
gaseous mercury at the Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution
Station; and collecting total and reactive gaseous mercury on
several voyages from Australia to Antarctica in partnership with
the Collaboration for Australian Weather and Climate Research.
Grant was a wonderful student mentor, and his graduate
students’ growth and success were of extreme importance to
him. He worked hard to teach them and help them develop
into outstanding scientists. He was much loved and will be
sorely missed by his family and relatives, and his many students,
friends, and colleagues around the world.
Grant had a passion for measurement and instruments. Images provided by the authors.