Dr McAlister is a general surgeon, at University Hospital London, with special interest in hepatobiliary, endobiliary, transplant and combat surgery. A professor, he is the director of the Office of Military Academic Medicine at the University of Western Ontario. His research interests include fundamental and clinical research in these areas as well as the history of medicine. He has been president of the Canadian Society of Transplantation and the Canadian Organ Replacement Registry. Dr McAlister was council member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and chair of its Region Advisory Committee (RAC) 3 (Ontario and Nunavut) of the Royal College. He was co-editor-in-chief of the Canadian Journal of Surgery from 2013 until 2019. He was a regular force member of the Royal Canadian Medical Service, Canadian Armed Forces until 2019 and has deployed overseas many times. Awards received include the Angus McLachlin chair of surgery (2014); John McCrae Memorial Medal (2019) and the Canadian Society of Transplantation lifetime achievement award (2019).