Plenary Speakers
EEST2015 is pleased to have seven distinguished plenary speakers.
Dr. David P. Wilkinson University of British Columbia, Canada
Dr. David P. Wilkinson is a Professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the University of British Columbia,
and Canada Research Chair (Tier 1). He is a fellow of several organizations including the Engineering Institute of Canada, the Canadian
Academy of Engineering, and the Chemical Institute of Canada. Dr. Wilkinson received his B.A.Sc. Degree in Chemical Engineering from
the University of British Columbia (UBC) in 1978 and his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry from the University of Ottawa in 1987, where his
graduate work was done with Professor Brian Conway. He has over 20 years of industrial experience in the areas of fuel cells and advanced
lithium batteries. He also maintained a joint appointment with the National Research Council Institute for Fuel Cell Innovation for
several years where he was a Principal Research Officer and a senior advisor. ...
In addition to being a Professor at UBC, Dr. Wilkinson was the Director of the UBC Clean Energy Research Center (CERC) for four years. Prior to his university appointment Dr. Wilkinson was the Director, and then Vice President of Research at Ballard Power Systems Inc., involved with the research, development and application of fuel cell technology. Prior to joining Ballard in 1990 he was the group leader for chemistry and electrochemistry at Moli Energy and part of the team that developed the world’s first commercial rechargeable lithium AA battery. Dr. Wilkinson has received a number of awards for his work including the R.A. McLachlan Award, the highest award for professional engineering in British Columbia, the Electrochemical Society Battery Division Technology Award, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Association, and the Grove Medal award for contributions to fuel cell technology. Dr. Wilkinson’s main research interests are in electrochemical and photochemical power devices and processes to create clean and sustainable energy. He has over 80 patents and more than 150 publications in peer-reviewed journals covering innovative research in these fields. He is a Board Committee Steering member of the International Academy of Electrochemical Energy Science (IAOEES). | |
Dr. Mark Verbrugge GM’s Chemical and Materials Systems Laboratory, USA Dr. Mark Verbrugge is the Director of GM’s Chemical and Materials Systems Laboratory, which maintains global research programs—enabled by the disciplines of chemistry, physics, and materials science—and targets the advanced development of structural subsystems, energy storage and conversion devices, and various technologies associated with fuels, lubricants, and emissions. Dr. Verbrugge is a Board Member of the United States Automotive Materials Partnership LLC and the United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC. He has received a number of GM internal awards as well as external awards including the Norman Hackerman Young Author Award and the Energy Technology Award from the Electrochemical Society, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the United States Council for Automotive Research. Mark is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. | |
Dr. Steven Holdcroft Simon Fraser University (SFU), Canada Dr. Steven Holdcroft is a Professor of Chemistry and Departmental Chair at Simon Fraser University (SFU). He is known for his contributions to the design of π-conjugated and ionic polymeric materials and their application to organic electronics and fuel cell technology. He is author/co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and several book chapters and patents. He has served on numerous research advisory boards throughout North America, Europe and Asia, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Association. He sits on the editorial advisory boards of several international scientific journals and national and international grant selection committees. He is the Technical Program Chair and Congress Vice-Chair of Pacifichem 2015 and Director of CaRPE-FC, a national network for Catalysis Research for Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells.For services to the community was awarded the Macromolecular Science and Engineering Division Award of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and is an elected Fellow of the CIC. | |
Dr. Jean-Pol Dodelet Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique(INRS), Canada
Dr. Jean-Pol Dodelet got his Ph.D. in Physical-Chemistry in 1969 from “L’Université Catholique de Louvain”, Belgium. The same
year, he left for Canada where he was Post-doctoral Fellow (from 1969 to 1971), then Research Associate (from 1971 to 1976) in
Radiation Chemistry at “The University of Alberta”, Alberta, Canada. In 1976, he became Professor of Physical-Chemistry at
“L’Université du Québec à Trois Rivières” in Québec, Canada, where he worked until 1981 on the photoconducting properties of
molecular photoconductors. In 1981 he became Professor of Physical-Chemistry at INRS, which stands for “Institut National de la
Recherche Scientifique”, in Québec, Canada, where he is still working presently. ...
At INRS, he got interested in electrocatalysis, especially in non-noble electrocatalysts for the reduction of oxygen in PEM fuel cells, a research topic that he has now pursued since 1990. Dr. Dodelet has published approximately 250 refereed papers in books and scientific journals, including Science and Nature Communications. These publications have earned him to date approximately 7500 citations. He is also listed as co-inventor on 10 patents in the area of carbon nanotubes and electrocatalysis. In the last several years, Dr. Dodelet collaborated with General Motors in the frame of an NSERC Industrial Research Chair in electrocatalysis, sponsored by General Motors of Canada. Now Prof. Dodelet is the steering board committee member of the International Academy of Electrochemical Energy Science (IAOEES). | |
Dr. Linda Nazar University of Waterloo, Canada Dr. Linda Nazar is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at University of Waterloo, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and a Holder of a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Solid State Materials since 2004. Linda has been recognized as a world leader in inorganic nano-material research, particularly for electrochemical energy technologies such as Lithium batteries, fuel cells and solar cells for the past 15 years. She has developed a new way for solid state structures to assemble themselves so that they can be designed to serve a particular purpose. She has published over 160 papers, review articles and patents in the field which were cited over 12,000 times. Linda has been ranked as the World Highly Cited Researchers in the period between 2004 and 2014, and also listed as one of the “3000 World's Most Influential Scientific Minds” by Thomson Reuters in 2014. | |
Dr. Subhas Chalasani East Penn Manufacturing Company, Inc., USA Dr. Subhas Chalasani is an esteemed member of the Research and Development team at East Penn, the world's largest battery manufacturing company. As the company continues to explore new advancement in lead-acid batteries, like the UltraBattery®, and its integration with other battery technologies, Dr. Chalasani brings 30 years of R&D experience in both lead-acid and lithium-ion technology to the program. Dr. Chalasani has successfully led other prominent battery development programs at companies including Exide Industries Ltd., Boeing, General Motors, and AT&T Bell Labs. A Ph.D. in Electrochemistry along many patents and publications in battery and battery management designs support his well-respected career and highly valued work. | |
Dr. Viola Birss University of Calgary, Canada Dr. Viola Birss is a Professor of Chemistry and has been a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Fuel Cells and Related Energy Systems at the University of Calgary since 2004. Dr. Birss was one of the founders and then leader of both the Western Canada Fuel Cell Initiative and the pan-Canadian Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Canada (SOFCC) organization, and, most recently, the Scientific Co-Director of the SOFCC NSERC Strategic Research Network. She is also now the Director of CAESR-Tech (Calgary Advanced Energy Storage and Conversion Research Technologies group) at the University of Calgary. Dr. Birss has been the recipient of numerous prestigious scientific awards, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada as well as of the Canadian Society for Chemistry and the Electrochemical Society, and is the author of over 200 refereed scientific publications. Her research has been focused on better understanding fuel cell reaction mechanisms, as well as on improving the performance and lifetime of both low temperature PEM fuel cells and high temperature SOFCs through the optimization of electrode properties. This work has included the development of sulphur and coke tolerant SOFC anodes, highly active anodes for the catalysis of methanol oxidation, and mesoporous carbon support materials for use in PEM fuel cell cathodes. More recently, she has also been focussed on the development of reversible and symmetrical solid oxide electrolysis cells, serving to split water and convert CO2 to useful products. Dr. Birss is also engaged in the development of protective coatings and other novel strategies to combat the corrosion of metals, novel electrochemical biosensors, and a range of structurally ordered nanomaterials for a variety of useful applications. |