Jeremy Gauthier

Education

Dr. Jeremy Gauthier is from St. John’s, Newfoundland where he received a B.Sc. (Hons.) and M.Sc. from Memorial University of Newfoundland. His research focused on development of polymeric sensors for analytical chemistry and mass spectrometry analysis of novel agricultural compounds. He then moved to Toronto where he received a Ph.D. in Analytical and Environmental Chemistry from the University of Toronto under the supervision of Prof. Scott Mabury. He continued with a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Toronto to work with Prof. Andre Simpson, implementing new NMR techniques for environmental chemistry applications. Dr. Gauthier joined the Chemistry department at the University of Guelph in September 2025.

Research Themes

The Gauthier lab is interested in developing new analytical approaches to investigate anthropogenic compounds in the environment and living species. The instrument of choice for the Gauthier lab is Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a uniquely powerful tool for the analysis of fluorinated and phosphorylated compounds, including per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS). Key research themes include:

1. Development and application of NMR-based approaches to better understand the true extent of anthropogenic fluorine contamination in environmental and biological samples. Using a combination of pulse sequence development and new NMR techniques, this research aims to promote the use of NMR as an analytical tool. Research includes challenging perceptions of low instrument sensitivity, closing the unknown fluorine mass balance that is common in many environmental samples, and applying new NMR techniques to a variety of analytical chemistry research questions.
2. Investigation of the behaviour and fate of fluorine-containing compounds in plants, animals, humans, and the environment. Many fluorinated compounds undergo transformations in the environment. There are a multitude of reactive pathways which can generate a plethora of new, unidentified transformation products from a handful of starting compounds. Using NMR and mass spectrometry, this research focuses on detecting novel transformation products of fluorinated compounds and better understanding the underlying reaction mechanisms.