Dr. Larry McKay is the Jones Professor of Hydrogeology and Chair of the Department
of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Tennessee (UT). This endowed
position was created with a donation from Donald Jones (UT grad 1959) and his wife, Flo,
to provide diverse opportunities for UT students in the growing fields of hydrogeology
and environmental geology. Dr. McKay received a Bachelor’s degree (1981) in Geological
Engineering from the University of British Columbia and a PhD (1992) in Earth Sciences
from the Hydrogeology program at the University of Waterloo, both in Canada and carried
out Post-doctoral research at the Geological Survey of Denmark in 1992. 

In 1993, Dr. McKay became an Assistant Professor (and later, Associate and Full
Professor) at UT-Knoxville. His research interests are diverse and include investigations
of the hydrogeologic properties of fractured clay-rich residuum and till, contaminant
fate and transport, and occurrence/transport of pathogens and fecal indicators. Dr. McKay
has developed strong collaborative ties with Dr. Alice Layton at the UT Center for
Environmental Biotechnology and Dr. Randy Gentry at the Institute for a Secure and
Sustainable Environment (ISSE) and the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.
He’s also worked closely with Dr. Mary Rogge at the UT College of Social Work to help
establish a Neighborhood Environmental College and an Environmental Health and Justice
Collaborative, which carries out research and provides community education for residents
affected by industrial contamination in the Chattanooga Creek area of southeast
Tennessee. Dr. McKay is leader of the ISSE Water Resources Group and has served on a
variety of national or international panels, including the Canadian Water Network’s
Pathogens-In-Groundwater Consortium. 

Dr. McKay was selected as the 2008 Birdsall-Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer. The lecture
tour was sponsored by the GSA Hydrogeology Division with travel funding provided by the
GSA Foundation and The University of Tennessee. Dr. McKay visited 40-50 universities and
research institutions in 2008 to give research talks on fractured clays, pathogens and
coal tar contamination. 

Dr. McKay was recently named to the 2010 class of American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS) fellows, an award given in recognition of because
scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.
Dr. McKay was selected for his distinguished contributions to the field of hydrogeology,
through interdisciplinary experimental research, through teaching and through outreach to
K-12 students and adults.

Articles

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Efficacy of Hollow-Fiber Ultrafiltration for Microbial Sampling in Groundwater (with Peter S.K. Knappett, Alice Layton, Daniel Williams, Brian J. Mailloux, M. R. Huq, M. J. Alam, Kazi Matin Ahmed, Yasuyuki Akita, Marc L. Serre, Gary S. Sayler, and Alexander van Geen), Ground Water (2011)

The goal of this study was to test hollow-fiber ultrafiltration as a method for concentrating...

 

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Viruses and Bacteria in Karst and Fractured Rock Aquifers in East Tennessee, USA (with Trisha B. Johnson, Alice C. Layton, Sidney W. Jones, Greg C. Johnson, Jennifer L. Cashdollar, Daniel R. Dahling, Leah F. Villegas, G. Shay Fout, Daniel E. Williams, and Gary Sayler), Ground Water (2011)

A survey of enteric viruses and indicator bacteria was carried out in eight community water...

 

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Colloid Transport with Wetting Fronts: Interactive Effects of Solution Surface Tension and Ionic Strength (with Jie Zhuang, Nadine Goeppert, Ching Tu, John McCarthy, and Edmund Perfect), Water Research (2010)

Transport of colloids with transient wetting fronts represents an important mechanism of contaminant migration in...

 

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Influence of Sedimentary Bedding on Reactive Transport Parameters under Unsaturated Conditions (with Melanie A. Mayes, Guoping Tang, Philip M. Jardine, Xiangping L. Yin, Molly N. Pace, Jack C. Parker, Fan Zhang, Tonia L. Mehlhorn, and Roycy Dansby-Sparks), Soil Science Society of America Journal (2009)

Moisture and contaminant transport in partially saturated, heterogeneous, layered sediments is typically anisotropic. Solute transport...

 

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Factors Influencing the Persistence of Fecal Bacteroides in Stream Water (with Alyssa Bell, Alice C. Layton, Dan Williams, Randy Gentry, and Gary S. Sayler), Journal of Environmental Quality (2009)

Laboratory microcosm experiments were used to assess the effects of environmental parameters on the persistence...

 

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