The Canadian

Centre for Environmental Modelling and Chemistry

Mission and History

Mission Statement

Our mission is to contribute to the scientific understanding of chemical behaviour in the environment; locally, regionally, nationally and globally,
by acquiring and analysing chemical physical properties and developing, validating and disseminating holistic mass balance models of chemical fate.

Historical Background

Originally known as the Environmental Modelling Centre, the Canadian Environmental Modelling Centre was established as part of Environmental and Resource Studies at Trent University in July of 1995, with the appointment of Professor Don Mackay as holder of a jointly funded NSERC - Chemistry Industry Reseach Chair. In July of 2000, the Research Chair was renewed for a five-year period. In April of 2007, upon Dr. Mackay's retirement from the position, Professor David A. Ellis became the Director of the CEMC. In May 2008, the name was changed to reflected the expansion of the Centre's capabilities into the fields of analytical and environmental chemistry.

Philosophy

Underlying the Centre's activities is the philosophy that we must improve our ability to understand and predict the sources, fates and effects of chemical substances in the environment. Essentially, the uses and releases of chemical substances must be controlled to ensure that they pose negligible risk to the health of humans, wildlife, and the larger ecosystem of which we are only a small part. Now that most of the obvious pollution sources have been regulated, the more subtle problem remains of assessing the large number of organic, inorganic, and metallic substances which may be present at low and variable concentrations. These contaminants can move throughout the ecosystem by a variety of pathways between atmosphere, lakes and rivers, and soils and into vegetation, animals, fish, birds, and humans.

Objective

Our goal is to understand and predict quantitatively the pathways of contaminant transport and the resulting exposure, often through the use of computer programs which simulate or model the chemicals' behaviour. When we can establish a quantitative link between sources, exposure, and risk of effects we are in a strong position to control sources to acceptably low levels, avoiding the problems of unacceptable contamination from excessive sources on the one hand, and uneconomic, unnecessary regulations on the other. Such balanced regulation is best effected through full and quantitative information about the substances' fate.

Emphasis at the Centre is placed on training undergraduate and graduate students in environmental science, on cooperation with the other faculty at Trent, and on providing research services relevant to current Canadian and International needs.

The Centre is supported by a consortium of industrial partners and NSERC, and collaborates with a number of other organizations. Meetings are held annually with partners and collaborators to discuss research progress and priorities. Newsletters are produced periodically. While the primary role of this website is the free distribution of our computer models , this site also allows us to post our newsletters, and a list of recent publications.

Last updated August 12, 2011.