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Dr. Jeff Dahn
Dalhousie University
More Than One Million Miles and Possibly a Century of Life
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Zoom Webinar @ 3:30 p.m.
Host: Dr. Steven Holdcroft
Webinar Link
Join us on Zoom: https://sfu.zoom.us/j/63205519340?pwd=bTFlTlFyVkh5VENlakN6cXc0U2hSZz09
Webinar ID: 632 0551 9340
Passcode: 142049
Abstract
Modern lithium-ion batteries can power a vehicle more than a million miles and last many decades. I will explain some of the advances since 2016 which have made this possible. One might ask, "Why do we need such awesome Li-ion batteries since we will never drive our cars 1 million miles?" Governments have recognized the need for electric vehicles, but have not yet recognized the need for vast amounts of electrical energy storage in order to put more renewables on the grid. In 2030, 90% of all Li-ion batteries will be in vehicles. So we will need to use those batteries for energy storage in so-called "vehicle to grid" applications when they are parked, where they will rack up charge-discharge cycles even when they do not move.
Biography
Jeff Dahn was born in Bridgeport, Conn. in 1957 and emigrated with his family to Nova Scotia, Canada in 1970. He obtained his B.Sc. in Physics from Dalhousie University (1978) and his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 1982. Dahn then worked at the National Research Council of Canada (82-85) and at Moli Energy Limited (85-90) before taking up a faculty position in the Physics Department at Simon Fraser University in 1990. He returned to Dalhousie University in 1996. He has worked on lithium and lithium-ion batteries for 43 years.
During his years at Simon Fraser University (90-96) he collaborated strongly with the R+D team at NEC/Moli Energy Canada (Now E-One/Moli Energy Canada). Dahn then became the NSERC/3M Canada Industrial Research Chair in Materials for Advanced Batteries at Dalhousie University in 1996. In 2016, Dahn began a 5-year partnership with Tesla which has been extended till 2026. Dahn is the co-author of over 750 refereed journal papers and 73 inventions with patents issued or filed.
Dahn has received National and International awards including: Battery Division Research Award (The Electrochemical Society - 1996); Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2001); the "Technology Award” from the ECS Battery Division in 2011, the Governor General’s Innovation Award (2016) and the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal in Science and Engineering (Canada’s top science award) in 2017. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2020.