John Smol

John P. Smol, OC FRS FRSC[2] is a Canadian ecologist, limnologist and paleolimnologist who holds the Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change[3] in the Department of Biology[4] at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. He founded and co-directs the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab (PEARL).[5][1][6]

John P. Smol

OC FRS FRSC
John P. Smol at the Royal Society admissions day in London, July 2018
Born
John P. Smol

Montreal, Quebec, Canada
NationalityCanadian
Alma mater
Known forAdvancements in the field of long-term environmental change
AwardsSteacie Prize (1992)
Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering (2004)
Full List = queensu.ca/pearl/~smolj/
Scientific career
FieldsLimnology
Paleolimnology
Limnogeology
Arctic
Diatoms[1]
InstitutionsQueen's University
ThesisPostglacial changes in fossil algal assemblages from three Canadian lakes (1982)
Websitequeensu.ca/pearl/

Early life

John Smol was born in Montreal, Canada. Both his parents were originally from Czechoslovakia. His mother was a war refugee and his father a political defector, who met in the immigrant sections of Montreal. His father was killed by a drunk driver in a car accident when Smol was 8 years old. He has three siblings, all of whom are in academia/education.

Education

Smol was educated at McGill University (BSc),[7] Brock University (MSc),[8] and Queen's University (PhD).[9]

Career and research

Smol works on a diverse range of subjects, most of which focus on using lake sediments to reconstruct past environmental trends. Topics include: lake acidification caused by acid rain, sewage input and fertilizer runoff (eutrophication), studies of nutrient and contaminant transport by birds and other biovectors, and a large program on climatic change. For about three decades, he has been leading research in the high Arctic, studying the present-day ecology of polar lakes and ponds, and then using paleolimnological approaches to determine how these ecosystems have been changing due to natural and anthropogenic stressors.

The author or editor of 21 books and over 620 journal publications and book chapters,[1][10] Smol is an international lecturer and media commentator on a variety of topics, but most dealing with environmental issues. From 1987 to 2007, he edited the Journal of Paleolimnology.[11] Since 2004, he has been editor of the journal Environmental Reviews.[12] He is the series editor of the Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research[13] book series. He held the Chair of the International Paleolimnology Association [14] for two three-year terms ending in August 2018, and he is currently President (2019-2022) of the Academy of Science, Royal Society of Canada.

Honours and awards

Among over 70 awards and fellowships,[15] he is the recipient of the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering,[16] given by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)[17] to honour Canada’s top scientist or engineer. Smol was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2018.[18] He holds six honorary degrees: LLD, St Francis Xavier University (2003); PhD, University of Helsinki (2007); DSc, University of Waterloo (2012); LLD, Mount Allison University (2016); DSc, Ryerson University (2016); DSc, Western University (University of Western Ontario) (2017). In 2013 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.[19]

Selected publications
  • Smol, J.P. 2008. Pollution of Lakes and Rivers: A Paleoenvironmental Perspective. 2nd edition. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Oxford. 383 pp, ISBN 978-1-405-15913-5.
  • Smol, J.P. and Stoermer, E.F. [Editors]. 2010. The Diatoms: Applications for the Environmental and Earth Sciences. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. 667 pp. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511613005
  • Smol, J.P., Schindler, D.W., Dillon, P.J., Vincent, W.F., Hecky, R., Carpenter, S.R., Likens, G.E., and Moss, B. 2012. Water and wisdom: an open letter to Ottawa. Op-ed in the Globe and Mail, available on line June 5, 2012.
  • Smol, J.P. 2016. Some advice to early career scientists: Personal perspectives on surviving in a complex world. Ideas in Ecology and Evolution 9: 19-23.[20]
  • Smol, J.P. 2018. A crisis in science literacy and communication: Does reluctance to engage the public make academic scientists complicit? Facets 3: 952-957doi:10.1139/facets-2018-0022.
  • Smol, J.P. 2019. Under the radar: long-term perspectives on ecological changes in lakes. Proc. Roy. Soc. B. 286: 20190834.doi:10.1098/rspb.2019.0834

References
  1. John Smol publications indexed by Google Scholar
  2. "Biography".
  3. "Research Chair". 29 November 2012.
  4. "Department of Biology".
  5. "PEARL".
  6. John Smol's ORCID 0000-0002-2499-6696
  7. Algal blooms OCLC 883989884
  8. Paleolimnology of selected Precambrian Shield lakes OCLC 1032916530
  9. Postglacial changes in fossil algal assemblages from three Canadian lakes OCLC 15941406
  10. "Publication List".
  11. "Journal of Paleolimnology".
  12. {{cite web|title=Environmental Reviews|url=https://cdnsciencepub.com/loi/er
  13. {{cite web|title=Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research|url=https://www.springer.com/series/5869
  14. "International Paleolimnology Association".
  15. {{cite web|title=70 awards and fellowships|url=https://www.queensu.ca/pearl/~smolj/
  16. "Herzberg Gold Medal". 28 June 2016.
  17. "NSERC". 28 June 2016.
  18. Anon (2018). "John Smol". royalsociety.org. Royal Society.
  19. "Order of Canada".
  20. "Ideas in Ecology and Evolution".
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