[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/WoodChristopher.jpg” caption=”Christopher Wood”]One of the world's foremost experts in fish physiology and aquatic toxicology has been given the highest honour McMaster can bestow upon its faculty.

Christopher Wood, a professor in McMaster's Department of Biology, has been named a Distinguished University Professor.

Over the past 25 years, Wood has conducted field studies from China to Brazil. His research has fundamentally changed scientists' understanding of how fish maintain acid-base balance and regulate internal levels of ions and nitrogen. His research also reveals how acid rain, global warming and metal contaminants affect fish physiology. Wood's studies of how metal toxicants act in aquatic environments have changed how regulatory agencies set acceptable environmental levels for toxic metals.

He is one of the most cited researchers in animal biology, and has trained numerous scientists from Canada and around the world.

Wood also holds the Canada Research Chair in Environment and Health. In 2003 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, one of Canada's most prestigious academic accolades. In 2001 the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council awarded him a Synergy Award, together with professors Jim Kramer from Geology/Geography and Russ Bell from Chemistry. The McMaster team won for their work in measuring silver released into the environment during the photofinishing process and researching the effects of silver on aquatic organisms.

An exemplary educator, he has trained 37 graduate students and over 40 postdoctoral fellows, many of whom now occupy faculty or governmental research positions. Two of his students have obtained the Governor-General's Gold Medal for their doctoral theses.

Wood has also played a role in developing scientifically sound environmental regulations governing the use of metals. Notably, he has successfully integrated numerous new techniques and methodologies from other biological sub-disciplines to bear on the problems he has tackled.

He is also involved with the development of biotic ligand modeling, in collaboration with 10 other labs. The model can predict the level of metal pollution which may be toxic to fish and aquatic invertebrates by studying the binding of metal to a particular area of its gills. The computer model eliminates the need for costly, time-consuming animal toxicity tests. This in turn saves communities and industry money while improving their response to the regulations. The result: improved water quality at a lower cost.

The title of University Professor is the highest honour McMaster can bestow on its faculty and the designation is awarded to professors who demonstrate exceptional achievement by distinction in research, scholarship and education such that the work has made a major impact on a given field of study, and/or the work has had a major impact across disciplinary boundaries.

The title of University Professor is awarded to full-time members of McMaster faculty whose contributions in research, scholarship and education are truly outstanding. The title is held for life and cannot be held by more than seven full-time faculty members at any time.