Pace setters: Graduate profiles
One week after Jay McNee graduates with a PhD in Geochemical Oceanography, he will celebrate the first anniversary of Lorax Environmental Services Ltd., a consulting company that he and two partners founded.
The company, which already employs eight people, provides highly specialized environmental services to mining companies and lists some of the province's leading mining companies as clients. It is the result of years of research in the area of the natural cycles of trace metals such as cadmium, copper, lead and zinc.
"Understanding the natural cycles of trace metals better equips us to monitor and reduce environmental impact," McNee says. "That's what's important from our perspective and from our clients' perspective."
His clients generally want to gauge the potential short- and long-term effects of the release of certain metals into rivers and oceans brought about by their operations.
He says the company's early success comes thanks to the high degree of specialization he and his partners have in the field, and to a strong relationship with UBC.
"There's no question our relationship with UBC will remain a vital one," he says. "One of our priorities is ensuring the value of research undertaken at UBC is recognized by industry, and that new technologies developed on campus in this field are put to use."
Lorax, with partners Placer Dome Canada and the Science Council of B.C., have undertaken a two-year collaborative research and development program with UBC. The $300,000 program is aimed at transferring technology from academia to industry.
McNee already has a long history with UBC. He completed a BSc in 1987 and went straight into a master's program. A year later he was doing doctoral research.
By 1989 he had started consulting part-time and by 1993 was consulting full-time while continuing to work on his doctorate. During the same period he married -- a UBC graduate, of course -- and became the father of two children.
"I can't say it's been easy juggling my research, consulting work and a family," McNee says. "But it's certainly proved worth the effort."