[2] Following graduation from Heriot-Watt University in 1966 Grant worked for Plessey in Havant as a development engineer on the design of digital frequency synthesisers and standards for the Clansman mobile radio communications system.
[2] Between 1971 and 1976 he was a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh where he studied the design and applications of surface acoustic wave (SAW) programmable analogue matched filters in communication systems, attaining his PhD in 1975.
[2] From 1976 to 1982 Mitchell was a lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, where he continued his earlier research with emphasis on the design of a range of wideband analogue Fourier transform processors for signal intercept, analysis and processing.
[2] In 1977 he was invited to take the position of visiting assistant professor at the Gintzon Laboratory, Stanford University, where he supervised the design of a digital phased array acoustic imaging system.
[2] Grant has over four hundred publications to his name, including four books:[2][5] Fellow of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, New York (FIEEE).