Zaghib, Karim

Dr. Karim Zaghib is a world-renowned scientist who specializes in rechargeable batteries, energy transition and the electrification of transportation. His many seminal scientific publications in these fields have earned him numerous honours and distinctions. He is regularly invited to take part in international conferences as an expert speaker to address issues and share vision involving energy storage and new battery technologies.

As director of research into the development of materials for lithium-ion batteries at Hydro-Québec, he helped make it the world’s first company to use lithium iron phosphate (LFP) in cathodes and to develop natural graphite and nanotitanate anodes. Dr. Zaghib was also one of the pioneers of the first photo-battery with two electrodes and in MWh high- capacity energy storage based on LFP/graphite through a joint-venture collaboration with Sony. Dr. Zaghib is the CEO of Concordia University’s $123M CFREF program, Volt-Age, where his focus is on attaining net-zero electrification of transport both in urban environments and, in partnership with the Indigenous Clean Energy consortium, in northern, remote, and Indigenous communities across Canada. As the Director of the Collaborative Centres on Energy and its Transition (C²ET), his mission is to become the benchmark for the design and industrialization of energy systems based on renewable energy by designing integrated systems based on electrochemical devices, new generations of batteries, and hydrogen production, in order to bring those systems equitably and affordably to market. His team’s most recent advances, are paving the way for the next generation of electric vehicle batteries and energy storage solutions, an area in which Québec and Canada are well positioned to play a leading role.