The Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes McMaster University graduates who have attained a high level of distinction and achievement through scholarship, research, teaching, creative contributions to the arts or sciences and/or service to society. This Award is intended to honour alumni whose accomplishments and contributions are of national and/or international significance, and/or have had a seminal or transformative impact on their field of endeavour. Two Distinguished Alumni Awards will be offered each year, one in the Arts (comprising Humanities, Performing and Fine Arts, Social Sciences and Business) and one in the Sciences (comprising Science, Engineering and Health Sciences).

Recipients of the Distinguished Alumni Award will be chosen annually by the Selection Committee from among the nominations submitted. Nominations will be retained and reconsidered annually for a period of three years.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is presented at Fall Convocation, and cannot be conferred in absentia.

Visit the Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients Archive to see past recipients of the award.

More information on Eligibility and Criteria.

The 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award Recipients

Mr. Robert (Bob) Munro ‘66

Robert Munro graduated from McMaster with a BA in history before entering the public service. He was a director with the Canadian Council of Resource and Environmental Ministers, then worked with the UN Economic Commission for Europe in establishing the Senior Advisors on Environmental Problems program and the first East-West program on environmental cooperation. At the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment, he was responsible for the action plans on Natural Resources Management and Development & Environment. Mr. Munro was a director-general with the Canadian government from 1975 to 1979, working in roles including secretary-general of the delegation for the 1976 United Nations Conference Human Settlements and international advisor for the Canadian Habitat Secretariat.

As Mr. Munro began advising governments and agencies in Africa, he discovered the next phase of his life’s work. A resident of Kenya since 1985, he played key roles in developing reports and plans including the Fair Share Water Strategy for Africa and the Kampala Action Plan for Sustainable Development in Africa. He has been a special advisor to the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) and chaired the WCED Experts Group on Environmental Law. He authored more than 150 articles and reports on subjects including resources management, human settlement, equity-led growth and sport for development. He is managing director of XXCEL Africa Ltd., which works with governments on integrating environmental policy and economic planning.

Mr. Munro may be best known as the founder of Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), working in one of Africa’s largest slums to provide more than 30,000 youth with programs in sport, health, leadership, culture and community service. On the field, MYSA teams won the Football for Hope tournaments at the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cups. Among other awards, MYSA received the UNEP Global 500 Award, the first CAF/African Youth Development Award, the World Sports Academy/Laureus Sport for Good Award, the Score4Africa Award and the Common Ground Award. Mr. Munro also founded both the Kenyan Premier League and Mathare United FC.

A member of the McMaster Alumni Gallery since 1990, Mr. Munro – like his wife Ingrid – is a senior fellow of the Ashoka Foundation. He received the Help for Self-Help Prize, the Jubilee Samaritan Award, the PlaytheGame Award for Strengthening Ethical Values of Sport and the DIAR Eminent Leaders Award on Diversity and Inclusion in Kenya. He was named a fellow of the Institute for Responsible Leadership and in June 2022 was appointed a member of the Order of Canada.

McMaster is proud to recognize Mr. Bob Munro of the Class of ’66 with the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Arts.

Dr. Fiona Campbell ’80, ‘84

After earning her BSc in psychology and MD from McMaster, Fiona Campbell completed a specialty in anesthesiology and pain management at the University of Oxford with a subsequent appointment to Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham University. She returned to Canada nearly 20 years ago as both a pediatric anesthesiologist at the Hospital for Sick Children and a faculty member at the University of Toronto where she is a professor in the Department of Anaesthesia & Pain Medicine

At SickKids, Dr. Campbell is co-director of the Pain Centre as well as a national and international leader in children’s pain care. She co-chairs the Pediatric Chronic Pain Advisory Network with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, is a member of the University of Toronto’s Centre for the Study of Pain and is the medical lead of the Pediatric Pain Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes). She is a member of Ontario’s Opioid Emergency Task Force and co-chair of the Advisory Committee of the Pain Society of Alberta. Nationally, Dr. Campbell is past-president of the Canadian Pain Society, co-chair of the Canadian Pain Task Force, a member of Health Canada’s Federal Opioid Response Task Force and a member of the CIHR Clinical Research Network Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research Chronic Pain Network. She also serves as co-chair of the International Guideline Group for pain in children with cancer and is a member of the ChildKind Certification Committee where she is a peer reviewer of pediatric hospitals.

As a researcher, Dr. Campbell has published more than 40 scholarly papers that have contributed to our understanding of topics including the transition from acute to chronic pain and quality improvement methodologies. Her invited talks have taken her around the world to speak to organizations including the European Commission, World Health Organization and United Nations. As a clinical innovator, Dr. Campbell has developed tools for engaging pediatric patients, developed self-management apps for chronic pain, created screening strategies for pediatric neuropathic pain and developed patient-focused educational resources.

Dr. Campbell received the prestigious Mayday Fellowship from the New York-based Mayday Fund and the Medical Staff Association Citizenship Award from SickKids Hospital in 2018. She also earned the Dr. Robert Creighton Award for Excellence in Resident Clinical Teaching from the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Medicine at SickKids, the Interprofessional Teaching Award and the Excellence in Undergraduate Clinical Teaching Award.

McMaster is proud to recognize Dr. Fiona Campbell of the Mac classes of 1980 and 1984 with the 2022 Distinguished Alumni Award for the Sciences.