Matthew McCandless

Matthew McCandless is the Interim VP Operations and Business Transformation, as well as the Associate Vice President, Water and Managing Director of Manitoba at IISD, and has also been the executive director of IISD Experimental Lakes Area (IISD-ELA) since its founding in April 2014.

At IISD-ELA, he leads a team of researchers who conduct whole-ecosystem experiments on lakes to determine the impact of human activity on our freshwater resources. Additionally, he manages operational activities, partnership building, fundraising, and revenue generation for the world's freshwater laboratory.

As Managing Director for Manitoba, he IISD's relationship with the Province of Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg—the home of the headquarters for the organization. 

Matt’s research interests are primarily in the areas of hydrology, water quality and bioprocessing–often combining both policy and technical research. Since joining IISD in 2006, Matt has been involved in dozens of projects on water, agriculture and bioindustrial development in Canada, Africa (East, West, and Central), Asia (India and Bangladesh) and Latin America.

Prior to joining IISD, Matt worked in the private sector as a biosystems engineer on projects related to hydrology, bioenergy, water management in Canada and India. He has a Ph.D. in biosystems engineering from the University of Manitoba, a Master of Natural Resources Management from the University of Manitoba and and a Bachelor of Biological Engineering from Dalhousie University. Matt is a registered professional engineer.