John P. Smol

Who is John P. Smol?

John P. Smol,OC, PhD, FRSC, Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change, and a professor in the Department of Biology at Queen's University, is a Canadian ecologist, limnologist and paleolimnologist. He founded and co-directs the Paleoecological Environmental Assessment and Research Lab.

The author or editor of 21 books and over 450 journal publications and book chapters, 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. Since 2004, he has been editor of the journal Environmental Reviews. He is the series editor of the Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research book series. He is currently Chair of the International Paleolimnology Association. Among dozens of other awards and fellowships, he is the recipient of the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering, given by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada to honour Canada’s top scientist or engineer. In 2013 he was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.