Director and Professor,
Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research,
School of the Environment
Phone: 519-253-3000 x 2797
Office: GLIER Rm. 247 D
E-mail: Mike McKay
In 2019, Robert Michael McKay joined the University of Windsor where he serves as the Director of the Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research and Professor in the School of the Environment. Professor McKay’s research is focused on large lakes where he studies environmental microbiology including harmful cyanobacterial blooms and blooms of ice-associated algae in the Great Lakes. During the COVID-19 pandemic, his lab group made a successful transition to wastewater surveillance in support of public health which now includes federal support integrating wastewater and environmental surveillance of pathogens with cross-border trade and resiliency of biomanufacturing and health sector supply chains. He is the author of over 150 peer-reviewed manuscripts and currently serves as an investigator on federal grants from the Canada Biomedical Research Fund, Biosciences Research Infrastructure Fund, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Natural Resources Canada, Canada Water Agency, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, U.S. National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. Professor McKay serves as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Great Lakes Research and as the Canadian co-chair of the International Joint Commission’s Science Advisory Board’s Science Priority Committee.
Expertise:
Harmful Algal Blooms
Winter Limnology
Environmental Microbiology
Wastewater Surveillance
Education:
Ph.D. 1991, Biology, McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada
B.Sc. (Hon) 1986, Biology, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada
Academic Positions:
Director, 2019-present, Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada
Professor, 2019-present, School of the Environment, University of Windsor, Windsor, ON, Canada
Adjunct Professor, 2019-present, Lake Erie Center for Fresh Waters and Human Health, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH USA
Ryan Professor, 1997-2018, Biological Sciences, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH, USA
Visiting Scholar, 2013, Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, MN, USA
Humboldt Scholar, 2005, GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Kiel, Germany
Post-doctoral Fellow, 1994-1997, Oceanographic and Atmospheric Sciences Division, Brookhaven National Lab, Upton, NY, USA
NSERC Post-doctoral Fellow, 1991-1994, Institute of Marine Science, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, USA