His 40 plus years of study has enabled the building of pipeline operations and petroleum explorations in areas of frozen ground.
His grandfather was George Leslie Mackay, who was instrumental in bringing Christianity and public health care to Northern Taiwan (Formosa).
His first paper on "The North Shore of the Ottawa River, Quyon to Montebello, Quebec" was published in the Revue Canadienne de Geographie, Volume 1 in 1947.
Mackay gained international scientific recognition through his experimental and field investigations in geography, and especially on the topic of permafrost.
From 1981 until his death he was an Emeritus Professor at the University of British Columbia, continuing to teach (voluntarily) a graduate course and undertake field research in the western Arctic, and has published over fifty papers in refereed journals.