Dr. Magda Havas received her B.Sc. in Biology and PhD in Environmental Toxicology at the University of Toronto.  Her PhD was in the Canadian Arctic at the Smoking Hills, along the coast of Cape Bathurst.  This is an area of natural acidification and is among the most acidic sites on the planet.  At this site the research team, lead by Dr. Tom Hutchinson, studied the effects of extreme and long-term acidification and metal pollution.  The team studied how certain organisms were able to adapt to the toxic conditions and how others were sensitive and died.  She then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University. Her research at this time was on acid rain and aluminum effects on aquatic ecosystems and more specifically on aquatic invertebrates