Gillian Goward has been appointed Dean of the Faculty of Science for a five-year term effective July 1.
Goward, a professor and former chair in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, is currently associate dean of Research & External Relations in the Faculty of Science.
Goward's appointment follows an extensive search led by a 15-member selection committee chaired by the provost. The committee unanimously recommended Goward for the position and their recommendation has been approved by McMaster's Senate and Board of Governors.
"Gillian is highly regarded for her research excellence, collaborative approach to academic leadership, principled stewardship and her proven ability to build programs, partnerships and culture," says Provost Maureen MacDonald, who served as dean of the Faculty of Science from 2017 to 2025.
"It is truly an honour to serve as the next dean of the Faculty of Science," says Goward. "McMaster stands poised at a pivotal moment with renewed senior leadership and a strong commitment to strategic, outward-facing science. I look forward to working with all my colleagues in the Faculty of Science to support that momentum by advancing research and student-centred excellence in all that we do."
During her time as chair of Chemistry & Chemical Biology from 2017 to 2022, and again from 2023 to 2024, Goward led the department through faculty renewal, program innovations, major multi-year renovations to the Arthur Bourns Building and the creation of Lab Stores and other campus-wide resources.
She also embedded equity, diversity and inclusion principles into all department policies, procedures and practices. Goward was the first woman to serve as chair of Chemistry & Chemical Biology and was the only female research-track faculty member in the department when she joined McMaster as an assistant professor in 2002.
As principal investigator of the Magnetic Resonance & Materials for Energy Storage Lab, Gillian Goward, centre, leads a team of trainees at all levels from undergraduate and graduate students to postdoctoral fellows and works closely with the McMaster Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Facility.
Goward is an internationally recognized physical chemist whose leading-edge research integrates nuclear magnetic resonance and magnetic resonance imaging with electrochemistry to drive advances in lithium-ion batteries and other energy-storage materials.
For two decades, Goward's Magnetic Resonance & Materials for Energy Storage Lab has collaborated with General Motors on electric vehicle battery performance and safety. As principal investigator, Goward has trained nine postdoctoral fellows, 18 PhD and 12 MSc students and more than 50 undergraduate researchers, with her lab co-authoring more than 140 peer-reviewed papers.
Goward earned an honours bachelor of science in Chemistry from McMaster, a PhD in Chemistry and a certificate in university teaching from the University of Waterloo, and completed an NSERC postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research.
She was named the McMaster Faculty of Science Research Chair in Magnetic Resonance Studies of Energy Materials in 2020 and received the peer-nominated McMaster Faculty Association Outstanding Service Award in 2024.
Goward succeeds professor Bruce Newbold, who has served a one-year term as acting dean following MacDonald's appointment as provost and vice-president, Academic.
"I want to personally thank Bruce for postponing his planned sabbatical to provide strong and steady leadership during a time of transition while also laying the foundation for the Faculty of Science's next strategic plan," said MacDonald.
The Faculty of Science has nearly 9,000 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 400 faculty and staff across eight departments and schools and four research institutes and centres.
