This lecture, named in honour of Canada’s pre-eminent permafrost expert, the late Professor J. Ross Mackay, is given at each Canadian Permafrost Conference. It was established by the Canadian National Committee for the International Permafrost Association (CNC-IPA) in 2015 and is now jointly awarded with the Canadian Permafrost Association (CPA). The recipient can be at any career stage and is chosen jointly by the CPA Board and members of the CNC-IPA based on research excellence in permafrost studies.
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2025Dr. Duane Froese |
Dr. Duane Froese presented the Mackay Lecture at GeoManitoba2025, the 78th Annual Canadian Geotechnical Society Conference and the 9th Canadian Permafrost Conference. Dr. Froese is a professor at the University of Alberta. In 2016, he was elected to the College of New Scholars, Scientists and Artists of the Royal Society of Canada. He also served as the Canada Research Chair in Northern Environmental Change from 2010 to 2020. His research focuses on environmental change in Quaternary timescales using a variety of approaches from water and permafrost water isotopes, sedimentary records, geochronology and paleoenvironmental proxies. He has also spent the last decade applying his interest to applied permafrost problems, and attempting to merge the worlds of traditional Quaternary geoscience with our understanding of ground ice distribution and its thaw trajectories.
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2024Dr. Pascale Roy-Léveillée |
Pascale is an Associate Professor of Geography at Université Laval and holds the Partnership Research Chair on Permafrost in Nunavik. Her research focuses on subarctic permafrost peatlands near the forest-tundra transition and examines susceptibility to thaw and potential for post-disturbance recovery. Pascale and her team conduct research in northern Yukon (in Vuntut Gwitchin traditional territory), in the Hudson Bay Lowlands of northern Ontario and Manitoba (Cree and Métis territory), and in Nunavik, which is part of the Inuit Nunangat. Several of their projects tackle landscape-scale problems, and are conducted in collaboration with local experts as well as researchers from other disciplines.
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2019Dr. Chris Burn (Carleton University) |
Dr. Chris Burn, D.Sc. is Chancellor’s Professor of Geography at Carleton University and is well-known in Canada and internationally for his many publications on ground ice, permafrost and climate change. He has worked extensively in the Yukon and NWT as well as on Svalbard. He collaborated closely with Professor Mackay for many years at field sites in the Mackenzie Delta and continues these studies, extending them to unprecedented durations. His research was recognized by an NSERC Senior Northern Research Chair (2002-2012), and by several awards, including the Permafrost and Periglacial Processes Award (2014), and the Canadian Polar Medal (2018).
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2015Dr. Steve Kokelj (Northwest Territories Geological Survey) |
Dr. Steve Kokelj is a Permafrost Scientist at the Northwest Territories Geological Survey and was honoured as the first-ever presenter of the J. Ross Mackay lecture at the 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference in Quebec City. He is known for his extensive work on landscape change across the Canadian Arctic and works closely with partners to develop environmental monitoring networks to support evidence-based decision making in the Northwest Territories.
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