The Department of Chemistry hosts guest speakers from local industry, research institutes, other universities, and from our own campus as part of a regular seminar series during the academic year. Most talks are open to the public.
All department sponsored seminars for the fall/1st session of 2026-2027 academic year will be held in-person, unless otherwise indicated. Monitor this space for future updates.
Details will be updated as soon as information becomes available.
Want to be updated of future events/information? Ask to be placed on our distribution list by emailing chemseminars@smu.ca
Advances in NMR chemical shift prediction–Beyond GIAOs
Lauryn Mason
Saint Mary's University
Date: Friday 9 October 2026
Time: 11:30 am - 12:30 pm (ADT)
Venue: AT101
The Gauge Including Atomic Orbital (GIAO) method is currently the leading theoretical framework for ab initio calculation of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts. Unfortunately, GIAO calculations are inherently approximations and include many sources of error, many of which cannot practically be removed. As such, empirical corrections can be used to improve GIAO predictions, and a number of empirical correction methods have been developed, perhaps the most popular of which being the linear scaling factor method pioneered by Baldrige and Siegel. In this talk, the creation of NMR linear scaling factors is explored, including the practical aspects, limitations, and theory. Additionally, the novel machine learning corrections will also be explored.
Ultrafast Mechanochemical Synthesis of Plasmonic Transition Metal Nitride Nanoparticles
Working through academia and research one step at a time: My journey as a chemist with cerebral palsy
Dr. Blaine Fiss
Dalhousie University
Date: Friday 16 October 2026
Refractory plasmonic materials, such as transition metal nitrides (TMNs) have shown potential to replace more costly or less robust plasmonic nanomaterials based on gold, silver, aluminum and copper metals. The synthesis of TMN nanoparticles traditionally relies on high-temperature, solid-state synthesis, typically involving the nitridation of metals or their halide and oxide precursors at extreme temperatures (>800 °C) for hours or even days. This method is slow and energy intensive and can prove difficult to scale toward industrial applications. Herein we present a rapid, mechanochemical method requiring no external heating. Effective formation of TMN nanoparticles occurs in as little as 60 seconds of grinding, reducing energy demand from 4.99 kWh/mmol to 0.0033 kWh/mmol. Similar to a previous study in our group, both mono- and mixed-metal nitrides can be achieved. The particles were analyzed using powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The effect of nitride source, milling time, and milling frequency on the final product formation, size and morphology will be discussed.
Statistics Canada stated that in 2019, 29% of postsecondary researchers and faculty reported having a disability. This result shows that more than 1 of every 4 researchers face or may face barriers, either physical or otherwise, that will impede their journey through the research landscape. While this is clearly an issue facing a considerable fraction of the community, systemic and institutional barriers need to be addressed and actively improved upon to ensure everyone has equal access to resources and opportunities in chemistry.
For those like me with physical disabilities, the buildings, lab spaces, and equipment needed to conduct research can often be an obvious and physical barrier to conducting research comfortably and effectively. In this seminar, I will discuss my journey through chemistry and the physical hurdles that I have faced in my journey thus far. I will emphasize the importance of open communication and conversation between facility leaders, faculty, and staff to best adapt and accommodate all research journeys, and provide examples from my own life. I will introduce modifications to equipment to improve accessibility and discuss how willingness to communicate and collaborate has influenced both the institutions I have learned from, as well as my perspective moving forward in my own career.
Dr. Jan-Hendrick Pöhls
Date: Friday 23 October 2026
Dr. Trevor Clark
University of Prince Edward Island
Date: Friday 30 October 2026
Dr. Jacy Conrad
Idaho National Laboratory
Date: Friday 6 November 2026
Venue: AT101/ Virtual
The Department of Chemistry at Saint Mary’s University is pleased to invite alumni, students, faculty, staff, and members of the broader academic community to the SMU Chemistry Alumni Symposium (SMUCAS 2026) on Thursday, November 12, 2026.
Join us for a day of presentations and opportunities to connect with members of the SMU Chemistry community, including alumni and colleagues from universities in the region.
Date: Thursday, November 12, 2026
Location: Saint Mary’s University
Lunch and dinner will be available for registered attendees, with dinner taking place at the Gorsebrook Lounge.
Registration
Please register by November 5, 2026.
SMUCAS 2026 – Registration – Fill out form
We look forward to welcoming you to SMUCAS 2026!
Developing Long-Lived Na-ion Batteries based on Abundant Elements
Dr. Michael Metzger,
Date: Friday 2 October 2026
The demand for energy storage will be enormous as we continue to “electrify everything” and bring more renewables online. The world energy use per year is 160,000 TWh. If we want to store 1 day worth of energy, we need 400 TWh of batteries to ultimately be deployed. 400 TWh of rechargeable batteries requires 400,000,000 tons of positive electrode materials and 400,000,000 tons of negative electrode materials. These numbers are daunting – do we have the resources? In this lecture Prof. Metzger will explain how we can develop Na-ion cells entirely based on abundant elements and how we can make their lifetime better than that of current Li-ion cells.
Biography
Michael Metzger is the Herzberg-Dahn Chair and Associate Professor of Physics at Dalhousie University. He is one of three principal investigators in the Tesla-Dalhousie research partnership. Metzger co-developed on-line electrochemical mass spectrometry, a gas analysis technique to diagnose battery cells, at TUM in collaboration with BASF and BMW (2013-2017). As a senior research engineer for Robert Bosch (2017-2020), he focused on solid-state batteries. Metzger is one of two co-leads for the Canadian Battery Innovation Center, a $20 million user facility at Dalhousie University for prototyping next-generation batteries. He has 12 patents and over 60 articles in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Materials. Metzger has been awarded the Herbert H. Uhlig Summer Fellowship for 2016 by the Electrochemical Society (ECS), 2016 Evonik Industries Research Prize, and the 2017 PwC “Strategy&” Presidential Award. Recently, he has also been awarded the 2025 ECS Battery Division Early Career Award and the 2025 President’s Research Excellence Award – Emerging Investigator at Dalhousie University. Metzger is also a technical advisor to the German startup, Litona, a spinoff from his lab.
Radioactivity Transport Simulations in CANDU-6 Nuclear Reactors
Dr. Olga Palazhchenko
University of New Brunswick,
Date: Friday 25 September 2026
Abstract
The Centre for Nuclear Energy Research (CNER) at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) supports the evolution of nuclear power production through both reliable and accurate experimental work and predictive modelling that aides with design, materials selection, and chemistry control of nuclear systems. Minimizing radiation fields in nuclear power plants is crucial for extending reactor lifetimes, lowering operating costs, decreasing outage times, and ensuring worker safety. There has been a growing interest in modelling the material degradation and transport mechanisms that lead to elevated radiation fields in the primary heat transport system (PHTS) of nuclear reactors. Meanwhile, online monitoring for flow accelerated corrosion (FAC) could have significant impacts for station FAC management programs providing real-time corrosion rate information.
The Corrosion and Radioactivity Transport Analysis (CARTA) code has been under development at UNB since 1996 and is a one-dimensional, comprehensive simulation package that mechanistically unifies the various material and activity transport processes in a typical PHTS of a 600 MWe Canada Deuterium Uranium (CANDU) nuclear plant (“CANDU-6”). The code uses an object-oriented approach, with output including corrosion rates and active and inactive elemental composition in the coolant and circulating crud on out-of-core surfaces. The CARTA modelling package is adaptive to changes in materials of construction, as the backbone of the code relies on material balances at the various interfaces (solution-oxide, bulk coolant, etc.), and incorporates kinetics, mass transfer, material wear, and a detailed boiler thermal hydraulic model, which has been benchmarked to CANDU-6 data. Species including iron, nickel, chromium, and cobalt, and their key activation products (Co-58, Co-60, Cr-51, Fe-59, Fe-55, Mn-54, and Ni- 63) are tracked.
This presentation shows radioactivity transport simulations for a typical CANDU-6 reactor, highlighting the effects of refurbishment on the distribution of radionuclides, particularly in the steam generators.
Dr. Olga Palazhchenko an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at UNB and a member of the Centre for Nuclear Energy Research. Her research combines experimental work and computational modelling in the areas of chemistry, corrosion, and radiation transport, particularly for nuclear power plant systems. Dr. Palazhchenko’s research output has been used by multiple utilities to support power plant maintenance planning, ensuring continued safe and reliable operation of Canda’s nuclear fleet.
Dr. Palazhchenko is also the Director for the multi million dollar, NSERC CREATE, “Canada’s Life cycle for Existing and Advanced Nuclear” (CLEAN), a Canada-wide, experiential learning program to provide university students at all levels with essential, nuclear workforce-ready skills. CLEAN connects Canada east to west, with researchers from UNB, University of Calgary, University of Regina, Royal Military College, and McMaster University.
Dr. Palazhchenko is a passionate teacher and mentor, having been recognized with the University of New Brunswick Merit award and Women in Nuclear’s Mentor of the Year award. Olga teaches several courses in the Nuclear Power program specialization at UNB. Olga and her team at CNER are strong proponents of multidisciplinary research and collaboration with industry toward a clean, nuclear energy future.
SMU Chemistry Society Summer Research Day
Date: Friday 18 September 2026
Undergraduate students who have conducted research in the Chemistry Department over the summer will present summaries of their projects and answer questions about their research.
The students presenting are: