J. Ross Mackay

John Ross Mackay ( born December 31, 1915 in Taiwan ) is a Canadian geologist who deals with the geology of permafrost.

Life

He is the grandson of Presbyterian missionary George Leslie Mackay (1844-1901), after a hospital in Taiwan is named, and the son of a missionary. Mackay studied at Clark University ( Bachelor's degree 1939) and Boston University ( Master's degree 1941). During the Second World War he was an officer in the Canadian Intelligence Corps, stationed in Darwin ( Australia). In 1946, he was Assistant Professor of Geography at McGill University. In 1949 he received his doctorate at the University of Montreal and was then an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia, where he became Associate Professor in 1953 and Professor in 1957. From 1981 he was a professor emeritus.

He is known for field studies of periglacial geomorphology of, among other things, the development of pingos and ice wedges over. He began his field studies in the Canadian Arctic in 1951 and continued annually since then it continues (especially in the Mackenzie Delta ), where he also conducted field experiments on a large scale.

He is married to Violet Meekins since 1944 and has two daughters.

Memberships

Honors

• Order of Canada in 1981
• Willet G. Miller Medal of the Royal Society of Canada (1975 )
• Roger JE Brown Memorial Award of the Canadian Geotechnical Society.
• GK Gilbert Award of the Association of American Geographers
• Kirk Bryan Award of the Geological Society of America
• Logan Medal of the Geological Association of Canada (1991 )
• WA Johnston Medal of the Canadian Quaternary Association ( 1993)
• Massey Medal of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society
• From the Canadian government, he received the Centennial Medal of Canada in 1967, the Centenary Medal of Northern Science ( 1984) and the Silver Jubilee Medal of Canada ( 1977)
• He holds honorary doctorates from the University of Ottawa (1972 ), the University of Waterloo (1981 ), the University of Victoria (1986 ), the University of British Columbia (1987) and the University of Helsinki.
• Vega Gold Medal of the Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography (1986 )

The Canadian Geomorphological Research Group annually awards the J. Ross Mackay Award.