[1] After graduating from Fall Mountain Regional High School, Conant matriculated at the University of New Hampshire.
His doctoral dissertation was supervised by Rolla M. Tryon Jr.[3] In 1976 Conant became a faculty member in the Science Department of Lyndon State College (which in 2018 became part of Northern Vermont University).
Over his 32-year career, he was a recipient of multiple National Science Foundation Grants which enabled him to travel to New Guinea, Borneo, Australia, Central America, Venezuela, and the Caribbean to continue his passionate study of tree ferns.
[1]After retiring from Lyndon State College, Conant started a business doing excavation projects.
Later in Barnet, Vermont, he concentrated on working with his wife on their property, where they cleared fields and built a network of roads through wooded areas.