After 28 years on the faculty in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto, Dr. Mackay moved in 1995 to Trent University in Peterborough Ontario where, with support from a variety of chemical industries and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of the Canadian Federal Government, he established the Canadian Enviornmental Modelling Centre. He is currently director. He is also on the Trent faculty of Environmental and Resource Studies, Chemistry and is a Fellow of Champlain College. The objective of the Canadian Environmental Modelling Centre (see www.trentu.ca/envmodel) is to contribute to improved management of chemicals in our environment locally, regionally, nationally and globally by acquiring and analyzing information on chemical properties which influence their fate in the environment, and developing, proving and distributing computer-based mass balance models or budgets which describe and predict the fate and effects of these chemicals in the environment. These models essentially predict where chemicals will go throughout the environment, how long they will persist and how humans and other species become exposed to them. This understanding can provide a sound foundation for managing or regulating chemicals, and in some cases banning them completely.

Professor Donald Mackay

The aim of Professor Mackay's research is to contribute to "green chemistry" or "eco-chemistry" through the improved design and use of chemicals of commerce in which environmental issues are more fully evaluated. Society can then enjoy the benefits of modern chemistry without risking problems of chemical pollution and toxicity which have been characteristic of the past.