U of T to Bestow Honorary Degree Upon Professor Emeritus Donald Mackay

Professor Emeritus Donald Mackay is among the distinguished individuals who will receive honorary degrees at the University of Toronto's 2008 Spring convocation ceremonies in June.

Mackay is a former U of T Professor and a Chemical Engineer who developed a series of software models that allow chemicals to be tracked from their source through air, water and soil to the point where they are absorbed by humans and wildlife.

Born and educated in Scotland, Mackay received his degrees in Chemical Engineering from
the University of Glasgow. After working in the petrochemical industry he joined the University of
Toronto where he taught for 28 years in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied
Chemistry and in the Institute for Environmental Studies. In 1995, he moved to Trent University to found the Canadian Environmental Modelling Centre.

Professor Mackay’s primary research interest is the study of organic environmental contaminants, their properties, sources, fates, effects and control, and particularly understanding and modelling their behaviour with the aid of the fugacity concept. His work has focused especially on the Great Lakes Basin; on cold northern climates; and on modelling bioaccumulation and chemical fate at local, regional, continental and global scales.

His awards include the SETAC Founders Award, the Honda Prize for Eco-Technology, the Order of Ontario, and the Order of Canada. He has served on the editorial boards of several journals
and is a member of SETAC, the American Chemical Society, and the International Association of
Great Lakes Research.

U of T will bestow the honorary degree upon Mackay during the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering's convocation ceremonies on June 16.

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