Peter T. Macklem, OC, BA, MD, CM, DHC(Hon), FRCP(C), FRSC
Department of Medicine
Meakins-Christie Laboratories
McGill University Health Center
Presentation Title
The Thermodynamics of Life and Fluctuations of Critical Illness
(Summary of Presentation)
Peter Macklem currently holds the following positions: Professor Emeritus, Department of Medicine, McGill University; Senior Physician, Royal Victoria Hospital; and Consulting Specialist, Department of Medicine, Montreal General Hospital.
Dr. Macklem received his undergraduate degree from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario and his MD from McGill University. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (1963) and his career includes two focuses, investigation and academia. He was appointed Founding Director of the Meakins-Christie Laboratories for Respiratory Research (1972-79). In 1979, Dr. Macklem became Physician-in-Chief, Royal Victoria Hospital and in 1980 Chair of Medicine at McGill. In 1985 he was made Massebki Professor of Medicine and from 1980-95 served as President and Scientific Director of the Respiratory Health Networks of Centres of Excellence.
Dr. Macklem is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 1982, he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and also was the recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (1987) and the University of Athens (1997). Dr. Macklem was admitted as an Officer in the Order of Canada (1988) and received the John B. Sterling Medal in 1991, an award honoring an outstanding graduate of Queen’s University. Dr. Macklem received The Gairdner Foundation Wrightman Award in 1999 and the Michel Sarrazin Award, Club de Recherche en Sante du Canada in 2003.
A member and officer of several scientific and medical societies, Dr. Macklem has held numerous board appointments, performed industrial and public policy activities, and has been a Visiting Professor and delivered many lectures. A prolific writer, Dr. Macklem has written over 310 journal articles and 43 book chapters.
Dr. Macklem’s primary focus has been research into the mechanics of breathing. His work involving the study of small airway function helped identify the early pulmonary damage caused by smoking. His research into the act of breathing has described how the respiratory muscles are coordinated to move the chest wall and ventilate the lung during quiet breathing and exercise and he has investigated how respiratory muscle fatigue and expiratory flow-limitation adversely affect ventilatory pump function. More recently he has turned his attention to the far-from-equilibrium thermodynamic state of living organisms poised in a phase transition between the ordered state and deterministic chaos. The adaptability, necessary for survival in Darwinian evolution, is manifested by continuous variability of physiologic parameters controlled by homeostasis (better called homeokinesis). This variability can be measured and may convey important information. Disease states pushing us deeper in the ordered regime and closer to equilibrium decrease the fluctuations whereas other diseases increase fluctuations by displacing us away from equilibrium making us more chaotic.