Dr. Robie Macdonald, one of the world’s leading marine geochemists, has won international respect for his innovative, rigorous, and ground breaking research using geochemistry to understand earth and ocean processes. As Head of Marine Environmental Quality at Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Institute of Ocean Sciences, Dr. Macdonald’s work spans a gamut that includes trace metals in lake and coastal marine sediments, chemical and biochemical impacts of underwater mine tailing discharges, the fate of pulp-mill derived dioxins and furans in coastal waters and sediments, and Arctic Ocean hydrography. His key insights into the cycling of contaminants in the Arctic Ocean have been crucial for northerners who rely on fish and marine mammals for food.