Alistair Mackay was a Scottish doctor and polar explorer. He was one the trio of explorers, along with Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David, who became the first humans to reach the magnetic South Pole. He was also a ship's doctor on the ill-fated Karluk expedition in 1913. After the Karluk was stranded, crushed, and sunk by pack ice, Mackay and three other members of the crew died of exposure while struggling across the Arctic ice to reach Wrangel Island or Herald Island.