Dahn, Jeff

Jeff Dahn is recognized as one of the pioneering developers of the lithium-ion battery that is now used worldwide in laptop computers and cell-phones. Dahn’s recent work has concentrated extending the lifetime of lithium-ion batteries so they last decades. He is the author of over 640 refereed journal papers and co-inventor of 65 inventions with patents issued or filed. He has an H-index around 95.

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.

Jeff Dahn has always interacted strongly with industry. 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). Dr. Dahn took up the NSERC/3M Canada Industrial Research Chair in Materials for Advanced Batteries at Dalhousie University in 1996 which he held until June 2016. Dahn was appointed a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in 2003. In June 2016, Dahn began a 5-year exclusive research partnership with Tesla Motors.

Jeff has received numerous awards including: International Battery Materials Association (IBA) Research Award (1995); Herzberg Medal, Canadian Association of Physicists (1996); ECS Battery Division Research Award (1996); Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2001); Medal for Excellence in Teaching (2009) from the Canadian Assoc. of Physicists, The Rio-Tinto Alcan Award from the Canadian Institute of Chemistry (2010), ECS Battery Division Technology Award (2011) and the Yeager Award from the International Battery Materials Association (2016). He was awarded the inaugural Governor General Innovation Award (Canada) in May, 2016 and the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal in Science and Engineering (Canada’s top science award) in 2017.