Organizers

Co-Chairs

Dr.  Karim Zaghib, Concordia University

Dr. Karim Zaghib earned his Master’s degree in 1987 and his PhD in 1990 in electrochemistry from the National Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble, France. In 2002, he received a post-doctoral qualification in physics, known as the Habilitation to direct research, from Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris, recognizing his ability to lead independent research and supervise PhD students.

Dr. Zaghib has played a determining role in research on lithium-ion batteries for electric and hybrid vehicles for over 30 years. As Director of Research at Hydro-QuĂ©bec for 28 years, Dr. Zaghib oversaw its development of materials for lithium-ion batteries and led it to become the world’s first company to commercialize lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathodes. Dr. Zaghib was also one of the pioneers of the first photo-battery with two electrodes, and of megawatt-hours (MWh) high-capacity energy storage based on LFP/graphite, and he has made enormous contributions to the electrochemistry of ionic liquids for lithium-ion batteries.

Dr. Zaghib is currently the Director of the Collaborative Centres on Energy and its Transition (C2ET) at Concordia University, which aims to become the benchmark for the design and industrialization of energy systems based on renewable energy. Its mission is to design integrated systems based on

electrochemical devices, new generations of batteries, and hydrogen production, in order to bring those systems equitably and affordably to market. Dr. Zaghib is also CEO of Concordia’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.

Dr. Zaghib’s leadership in battery development and electrochromics is undisputed globally. He is a co-author of 420 scientific publications (h-index 91, >28000 citations) and co-inventor on 973 patents for over 200 inventions associated with 63 licenses. He was Chair of the 15th International Meeting on Lithium Batteries, the premier international conference on lithium battery science and technology, in 2010, as well as of the first International Conference on Olivines for Rechargeable Batteries in 2014. Most recently, Dr. Zaghib was named Chair of the 23rd International Meeting on Lithium Batteries, to be held in 2026, and was the driving force behind the successful bid to host the meeting in Montreal. His field-transforming research and innovation have also earned him numerous awards and distinctions. A Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, and recipient of its Battery Technology Division Award (2013), Dr. Zaghib is also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Canada, and the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the only person ever to have received both the Research Award (2010) and the Technology Award (2017) of the International Battery Association. Among many other honors, he is the recipient of the Prix du QuĂ©bec Lionel-Boulet (2019), the highest distinction for industrial and applied research and development awarded by the Government of QuĂ©bec, and the Kalev-Pugi Award of the Society of Chemical Industry Canada (2022). Named a “Personality of the Year” by the magazine L’actualitĂ© in 2023, Dr. Zaghib is most recently the recipient of the Battery Research Award from the Electrochemical Society.

 Dr. Sixu Deng, Concordia University

Dr. Sixu Deng is an early-career Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at Concordia University. 

Dr. Deng worked at McMaster University as an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow in 2022. He received his B.Eng. and first Ph.D. at Beijing University of Technology in 2011 and 2018, respectively, and his second Ph.D. at Western University in 2022. Dr. Deng’s research interests focus on the development of high-performance energy storage devices united with novel materials design and advanced characterizations. The research directions include solid-state batteries, ion-based batteries, supercapacitors, atomic/molecular layer deposition, synchrotron radiation, and in-situ/operando techniques. Dr. Deng has authored and co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications with an H-index of 29 and citations of over 3200 times. In the past five years, 

Dr. Deng has given over 18 presentations, including 1 keynote and 6 invited talks. Dr. Deng also received many awards, including NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowships, Canada Graduate Scholarships, MITACS Accelerate Fellowships, Ontario Graduate Scholarships, and Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarships. Dr. Deng is serving as an Associate Editor of

Frontiers in Energy Research (Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage) and as a Youth Editor Board Member of eScience and Rare Metals. Dr. Deng also serves as the symposium co-organizer/co-chair for the Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition (CSC 2024).

Local Organizers

  • Honorary Chairman: Michel Angers, Mayor of Shawinigan
  • Karol-AndrĂ© Couture, Volt-age
  • Jean-Christophe Daigle, CEETSE/CETEES, Hydro-QuĂ©bec
  • Nancy DĂ©ziel, CNETE
  • Michael Epstein, RĂ©seau AllĂ©gĂ© QuĂ©bec
  • Corinne Gendron, UniversitĂ© du QuĂ©bec Ă  MontrĂ©al (UQAM)
  • Denis Geoffroy, NanoOne
  • Xia Li, Concordia University
  • BĂ©atrice Ngatcha, Lavery
  • Brian Ostroff, Arianne Phosphate
  • Donald Olivier, SociĂ©tĂ© du parc industriel et portuaire de BĂ©cancour
  • Thierry St-Cyr, InnoÉE
  • Michel L. Trudeau, Concordia University

Scientific Committee

  • Yaser Abu-Lebdeh, National Research Council (Canada)
  • Khalil Amine, Argonne National Laboratory (United States)
  • Michel Armand, CIC energiGUNE (Spain)
  • Martin Bazant, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States)
  • Jeff Dahn, Dalhousie University (Canada)
  • Vito di Noto, University of Padova (Italy)
  • Kristina Edström, Uppsala University (Sweden)
  • Maria Forsyth, Deakin University (Australia)
  • Chun Ann Huang, Imperial College London (United Kingdom)
  • Saiful Islam, University of Oxford (United Kingdom)
  • Hadi Khani, The University of Texas at Austin (United States)
  • Dongling Ma, INRS (Canada)
  • Jagjit Nanda, SLAC National Laboratory and Stanford University (United States)
  • Margret Wohlfarht-Mehrens, ZSW Ulm (Germany)
  • Jie Xiao, University of Washington (United States)
  • Atsuo Yamada, University of Tokyo (Japan)
  • Yong Yang, Xiamen University (China)