Cory M. Widdifield

Professional Qualifications:

BSc, MSc, BEd (Windsor), PhD (Ottawa), Postdoctoral Studies (ENS-Lyon (France); Durham (UK))

Teaching:

General Chemistry; Physical Chemistry

Research:

Traditionally, when determining the solid-state structure of a compound, a single crystal is prepared, and diffraction experiments are performed. This method has served the scientific community very well over the past century. However, many compounds with important applications (for example, in the health industry) are difficult to crystallize and additional methods must be developed to complement diffraction measurements.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a spectroscopic technique that is very sensitive to the local (Angstrom-scale) environment about many probe nuclei (¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁵N, ¹⁹F, ³¹P, etc.). This sensitivity is manifested through many types of physical observables (such as magnetic shielding, J-coupling, dipolar-coupling, and quadrupolar-coupling).

In this research group, we develop tools that can be used to perform various tasks related to establishing chemical structures using NMR data (‘NMR crystallography’). Some examples of these tasks include: structure refinement, structure verification, structure selection, and structure determination.

Students in this research group will learn how to perform NMR experiments, use line shape and spin dynamics simulation software, perform quantum chemistry calculations with state-of-the-art supercomputing resources, and develop productivity-enhancing scripts and software. Their work will be presented at various national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Representative Publications:

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