Bio
Dr. Gillian Goward, an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at McMaster University, is the lead investigator on a four-year, collaborative Automotive Partnership Canada (APC) initiative on lithium ion battery materials, which brings together researchers from both academic and industrial fields, to tackle the development of techniques for studying lithium ion cells under operating conditions. The objective of the Goward research group is to investigate ion dynamics in electrochemically-relevant materials using advanced solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods. Her research results will have a significant impact on providing more efficient experimental means of quantifying dynamics, with measuring time savings of a factor of 100, and enabling analysis of much smaller samples, such as extracted battery electrodes. Dr. Goward has a second extensive body of work on the use of NMR to probe ion dynamics in hydrogen-bonded structures. These methods allow the detection of relative ion dynamics in novel structures targeted for high-temperature, low humidity fuel cell applications.