Honorary Members of the NSIS

Dr. Jeffrey R. Dahn is a pioneer in the development of the lithium-ion battery, which has worldwide impact, and was elected an Honorary Member of the NSIS in 2024.  He established a world-leading centre of battery science at Dalhousie University, and trained a generation of students (more than 140). He has partnered effectively with the major technology innovators in the private sector including the 3M Corporation, and currently with Tesla Inc. 

Jeff has received numerous and significant Canadian and international awards for his accomplishments and contributions to research, education and innovation. He has also given at least one of our NSIS public lectures. 

Jeff received a BSc, from Dalhousie in 1978, and MSc. and PhD degrees from UBC in 1980 and 1982, respectively. He then worked for 3 years at NRC in Ottawa, and then was at Moli Energy Ltd. in Burnaby, BC for 5 years where he became Director of Research. From 1990 to 1996 he was at Simon Fraser University, where he became Professor of Physics. In 1996 he moved to Dalhousie U. in Halifax, where he is currently Professor of Physics and Professor of Chemistry.

Dr. Dahn is most noted for work on Lithium-ion batteries, doing key research on their physics and chemistry to make them more long-lived, energy-dense, safe, reliable, and lower-cost.  In the process he developed a world-class centre of research and teaching excellence at Dalhousie. He has more than 900 publications in the peer-reviewed literature, with over 90,000 citations, and a Web of Science H-index of 154. Jeff has 78 patents issued or filed.

While Dr. Dahn’s scientific work has focused on the development and understanding of carbonaceous materials for use in lithium-ion batteries, he and his students have worked on many other aspects of Li-ion battery science and technology. For example, he is a co-inventor of Li[Ni_xMn_xCo_1-2x]O₂ 0 < x < 0.5 (called NMC) class of positive electrode materials now used worldwide in Li-ion cells. He and his colleagues also developed “High Precision Coulometry” and other advanced diagnostics which allow decades-long lifetimes of Li-ion cells to be assessed in experiments that last only a few weeks. Two spinoff companies, DPM Solutions and Novonix, have successfully emerged from the Dahn group at Dalhousie University.

Jeff has been a consultant with almost a dozen significant global companies, and has served as an expert witness for five others.

Dr. Dahn’s cumulative work as a scientist, innovator and educator has received widespread recognition.  Some of the most significant awards include: being ranked 8th world-wide for impact of publications in the area of Materials Science between 1990 and 1995 (Science Watch), being elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society, the Governor General of Canada Innovation Award, the Herzberg Medal and the Medal for Excellence in Teaching (Canadian Association of Physicists), the W. Lash Miller Award (Canadian Section of the Electrochemical Society), the Research Award by the International Battery Materials Association, and induction to the NS Science Hall of Fame (Discovery Centre, Halifax).