Professor James J. Noël
Education:
B.Sc.(Guelph,1987)
M.Sc. (Guelph, 1990)
Ph.D. (Manitoba, 2000)
Career History:
Associate Professor of Chemistry. Associate Editor of NACE CORROSION Journal. Past Chair of the Electrochemical Society Corrosion Division and former Chair of the ECS Education Committee. Previously Research Scientist with both the Shoesmith (1998-2016) and Wren (2004-2016) research groups at UWO. Previously a Research Officer at Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (1991-1998) studying titanium corrosion and hydrogen absorption in support of the Canadian Nuclear Fuel Waste Management Program, in which Ti was considered a candidate material for nuclear fuel waste container fabrication. Also a Chemist with Ontario Hydro (1989-1991) working on development of corrosion inhibitors to be used during chemical decontamination of the primary side coolant circuits of CANDU nuclear reactors.
Teaching experience:
Includes repeat runs of 5 different first-year undergraduate general chemistry courses, second-year courses on geochemistry and analytical chemistry, third-year undergraduate courses on instrumental analysis and industrial chemistry, a fourth-year/graduate combined course on corrosion engineering, several graduate level courses on electrochemistry and corrosion, semi-annual short courses on the fundamentals of electrochemistry for The Electrochemical Society. Current supervisor/co-supervisor of 15 PhD students, 4 MSc students, 4 PDFs, 3 senior undergraduate student research projects.
Research Interests:
Application of electrochemical methods, (e.g., electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), local impedance (LEIS), scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM), photoelectrochemistry, rotating ring-disk electrodes, coupled-electrode electrochemical noise measurements, and classical electrochemical techniques) surface analyses, neutron scattering, ion scattering, and other techniques to solve materials science problems. The underlying chemical reasons for the validity of empirically developed corrosion protection guidelines for industrial service environments for metallic structures. Differences in the passive oxide films formed on different alloys that are related to the different corrosion susceptibilities of these materials. Developing new equipment and improved techniques for in situ electrochemistry/neutron reflectometry and application of the technique in studies of corrosion, passivity, and hydrogen absorption. Corrosion rate and damage function measurements and development of predictive models.
Publications:
Author of 2 theses and co-author of 125 refereed journal articles, 6 book chapters, 56 conference proceedings papers, and 15 proprietary and 7 publicly available company reports.
Organizations:
Member of the Canadian Institute of Neutron Scattering, the Canadian Nuclear Society, The Electrochemical Society, the Association for Materials Protection and Performance, the International Society for Electrochemistry, the Canadian Society for Chemistry, and the National Geographic Society.
Currently: Past Chair of the ECS Corrosion Division Executive Committee, Member of the ECS Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Committee, Member of the NACE CORROSION Journal Editorial Board (Associate Editor), and Guest Editor of the JES Focus Issue on Critical Factors in Localized Corrosion in Honor of Gerald Frankel.