Larry McKay named as 2008 GSA Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer
See Also: Lecture Title and Abstract | Lecture Request Form | Lecture Schedule | Background of Lectureship
Larry McKay, Jones Professor of Hydrogeology in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee (UT), was selected as the 2008 Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer. The lecture tour is sponsored by the GSA Hydrogeology Division with travel funding provided by the GSA Foundation and The University of Tennessee. Dr. McKay is preparing three lectures based on his diverse environmental research program. Each lecture has a different focus, so that host departments in different disciplines or types of institutions can request a lecture that best fits their interests.
Dr. McKay received a Bachelor’s degree (1981) in Geological Engineering from the University of British Columbia. After working for five years as a consulting engineer in western Canada, he returned to graduate school at the University of Waterloo, where he received a PhD in Hydrogeology in the Department of Earth Sciences in 1991. His dissertation research investigated solute and colloid transport in fractured clay tills in Ontario, and he continued with this type of research during his Post-doctoral studies with the Geological Survey of Denmark in 1992.
In 1993, Dr. McKay became an Assistant Professor (and later, Associate and Full Professor) at UT. On arrival in Knoxville, he was faced with the problem of how to apply his research experience in glacial deposits to scientific problems in the non-glaciated terrain of the American southeast. Fortunately, he quickly noted the hydrogeological similarities between glacial tills and clay-rich saprolite, and began a series of field, lab and modeling studies of contaminant transport in fractured shallow saprolite at nearby Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This research later expanded to include investigations of occurrence and transport of pathogens and industrial chemicals in floodplain soils and streams. Dr. McKay developed strong collaborative ties with researchers at the UT Center for Environmental Biotechnology and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, so that nowadays many of his graduate students spend as much time working with molecular microbiological methods (qPCR and gene sequencing) and stream gauging as they do with conventional hydrogeological methods. Dr. McKay has worked closely with the UT College of Social Work to help establish an Environmental Health and Justice Collaborative, which carries out research and provides community education for residents affected by industrial contamination in the Chattanooga Creek area of southeast Tennessee. Dr. McKay is also Leader of the Water Resources Group in the UT Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment and has served on a variety of national or international panels, including the Canadian Water Network’s Pathogens-In-Groundwater Consortium. He was an Associate Editor for the Journal of Ground Water for six years and is a regular reviewer for several other journals.
To request a visit to your institution, submit the Lecture Request Form to Dr. Larry McKay before November 30, 2007. Additional information can be obtained by emailing lmckay@utk.edu or calling Dr. McKay at (865) 974-0821. The GSA Hydrogeology Division is especially interested in including liberal arts colleges in the itinerary and one of Dr. McKay’s talks (Chattanooga Creek) is aimed at multi-disciplinary undergraduate audiences. GSA will pay expenses for domestic travel (with UT paying for international travel) and the host institution is expected to provide local accommodation and meals.