Graduate Henry Garland: Pushing boundaries in science, sports and beyond

As a high schooler growing up in Deer Valley, Henry Garland dreamed of becoming a psychologist. “I was playing a lot of sports and a lot of video games,” Garland said. “I was fascinated by the people who get so good at these things that they get paid to do them. I wanted to understand what makes them different. I think it has something to do with their mental state.”  Now on the brink of graduation from NAU, Garland has pivoted from psychology to physics. But he’s still drawn to people who push their minds and bodies to the limit—so much so that he’s become one of them.  “When I find something I like,” Garland said, “I notice I get completely immersed in it, maybe a little obsessive about it.” “When I find something I like, I notice I get completely immersed in it, maybe a little obsessive,” Garland said. Take academic achievement, for example. Once the Honors College student and chemistry major found a research topic he loved, he went all in, winning three undergraduate research grants and co-authoring two peer-reviewed papers in the span of four years. Those are stats most graduate students would envy.   And then
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