Designing environmental monitoring programs with Prof Kelly Munkittrick

Professor Kelly Munkittrick

Kelly Munkittrick is the CAIP Research Chair in Aquatic Ecosystem Health at the University of Calgary since 2019.  From 2017-19, he was the Executive Director of Cold Regions and Water Initiatives at Wilfrid Laurier University, was Director, Environmental Monitoring and Risk Assessment at Canada’s Oil Sands Innovation Alliance (COSIA) from 2013-17 and held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Ecosystem Health Assessment at the University of New Brunswick.  He is a co-founder of the Canadian Rivers Institute, was Scientific Director of the Canadian Water Network, and has sat on expert panels and review Boards for the United Nations University, the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission Board, and the OCED. 

Early in his career, he worked as a Research Scientist with Environment Canada (1996-2001) and with Fisheries and Oceans (1990-1996). While with the Federal government, Kelly was one of the developers of the Canadian Environmental Effects Monitoring (EEM) requirements for pulp and paper mills, and metal mines, and was a member of the EEM National Science Team until 2012. His research interests are related to improving the sensitivity of environmental monitoring programs, improving their utility in regional management frameworks, and increasing capacity for Indigenous community-based monitoring programs. He has designed monitoring programs in North and South America, and Asia, has taught environmental monitoring study design in more a dozen countries, and has worked with various governments to improve environmental assessment models. Dr. Munkittrick completed his PhD in 1988 in Aquatic Toxicology at the University of Waterloo, and received a M.Sc. in environmental physiology in 1983 and a B.Sc. in fish and wildlife biology in 1980, both from the University of Guelph.