After High School, Ian studied Science at McGill, joined one of the fraternities (Phi Kappa Pi, the only Canadian frat), played Junior Varsity Football and then Varsity for McGill, becoming an all-star centre.

Ian at McGill University

In third year, he met his future wife, Susan, who was then a nurse at the Montreal General Hospital and they married in 1975. After graduating in 1972, he was encouraged to do a Master of Science degree in Genetics with Dr. WF Grant of MacDonald College, before entering Medicine at McGill. His father had a stroke while he was training and so Ian elected to pursue family medicine training and return to St. Lambert to help support his parents. Taking over Dr. Flint's practice, he sincerely enjoyed looking after the families of many classmates for 2 years. In 1983, he was offered the unique opportunity of a fellowship from the IODE Ontario Provincial Chapter to train in Ottawa with Alasdair Hunter in clinical genetics. He then went on to do an MRC fellowship in research, train as an ophthalmologist, and was appointed finally as a Ontario Ministry of Health Career Scientist, at the University of Ottawa. As such he was instrumental in planning the basic science laboratories of the Eye Institute in Ottawa during its construction.

Throughout Ian's academic career, he has been a leader in the development of academic Ophthalmology and vision research in Canada. He was Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Ophthalmology. He has served at a national level as President of the Canadian Association of Pediatric Ophthalmologists, as Secretary/Treasurer and then President of the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology, and currently serves as part of the Nucleus Committee for Ophthalmology of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. He has served on all the major vision science-granting panels in Canada including the Foundation Fighting Blindness Canada and MRC Canada. As the current Chair of the EA Baker Foundation of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, Dr MacDonald oversees the granting of postgraduate clinical fellowships for ophthalmologists and operating grants for young investigators. He also serves presently as Scientific Officer of Clinical Investigation Panel A of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

In 1992, Ian moved to Alberta to become Professor and Chairman of the Department of Ophthalmology of the University of Alberta. With recruitment over the years the Department now hosts an Ocular Genetics laboratory that is recognized internationally. Dr MacDonald assisted the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Alberta in planning for the creation of a new Department of Medical Genetics and last year. In 1996, he oversaw the regionalization of all ophthalmology to a single centre at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. The Centre is one of the best in Western Canada which trains ophthalmologists from Alberta and Manitoba. Two of his residents have done Master of Science degrees with him. Ian is most proud of the contributions he has made to assist the careers of young trainees and academics who have in turn helped build an exceptional academic environment at the University.

Ian pictured with his Residents at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton. - 2006

Ian is happily married to Susan Rutherford, his wife of 31 years. They have 3 children, Rob 28, Bruce 26, and Katherine 18, all of whom live in Edmonton.

Update: March 2007
Branch Chief, Ophthalmic Genetics and Visual Function, National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA

My son's wedding. My older sister, Margaret, is on the left of one of my sons (kneeling with a hat = Rob). Beside her is Jean McLeod also of St. Lambert (married to my brother-in-law, Don Rutherford), behind both of them and between them is my wife Susan (nee Rutherford). My daughter is also wearing a hat (the only girl with a hat). I am on the right with a red shirt, grayish hair and no glasses. That is the MacDonald clan. Bruce married a real Westerner, Kim, in the centre, a hybrid Scot and Ukrainian.