Karim Zaghib obtained his MS in 1987 and his PhD in 1990, both in electrochemistry from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, France under the direction of Bernadette Nguyen. In 2002, he received the HDR (Habilitation à Diriger la Recherche) in materials science from the Université de Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris, France. From 1986 to 1990, Dr. Zaghib developed Al-Mn alloys in molten salts as negative electrodes for Li-ion batteries.
In 1990, Dr Zaghib published a new method to enhance the electrodeposition of metals. He was a post-doctoral fellow (1990-1992) under a Saft-DGA contract. From 1992 to 1995, Dr. Zaghib was guest researcher for the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (METI) where he joined the New Sunshine project at ONRI (Osaka, National Research Institute) to develop new materials for lithium-ion batteries. Following his research in Japan, Dr. Zaghib joined Hydro-Quebec’s ACEP project where he was instrumental in introducing Li-ion technology to the company. Dr. Zaghib is currently the Project Manager of the Conversion and Storage of Energy Group. At Hydro-Québec, he started a collaboration with Michel Armand on new materials and electrolytes.
In 1998, Dr. Zaghib started a collaboration with Kim Kinoshita at LBNL to understand the oxidation and irreversible capacity loss versus the particle size of natural graphite. During the last 15 years, Dr. Zaghib has actively collaborated with John Goodenough (University of Texas, Austin), and Christian Julien and Alain Mauger (Paris 6 University, France) to develop the olivine cathode materials for Li-ion batteries.
Dr. Zaghib has published 131 papers, 85 patents, and served as editor or co-editor of 11 books. He was organizer or coorganizer of 37 symposia, meetings, workshops. In June 2010, he was the General Chair of the International Meeting on Lithium Batteries (IMLB) in Montréal, Québec. He is very active in ECS, and recently completed his term as the Chair of the Energy Technology Division. Dr. Zaghib is the recipient of the International Electric Research Exchange (IERE) Research Award (2008) in Iguaçu, Brazil and the International Battery Association (IBA) Research Award in January 2010.
About Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ) The Hydro-Québec Research Institute (IREQ) provides technical support to Hydro-Québec's divisions by carrying out technological innovation projects in cooperation with universities, research centres and industry. The organisation has roughly 500 employees and a number of laboratories that together innovate and provide services in the areas of electricity generation, transmission, distribution and end-use.