As a strategic advisor to the management committee, Dr Karim Zaghib will support IQ in the development strategy of the lithium industry, ranging from ore extraction to the production and recycling of batteries.

Researcher Karim Zaghib, who is internationally renowned for his work on lithium-ion batteries at Hydro-Québec, joins Investissement Québec (IQ).

Posted on June 19, 2020 at 9:51 a.m.  The Canadian Press

He will be asked to help position Quebec as a leader in the battery materials and energy storage sector.

As a strategic advisor to the management committee, Dr. Zaghib will support IQ in the development strategy of the lithium industry, ranging from ore extraction to the production and recycling of batteries. The ambition is to make Quebec a leader in electric vehicles.

Karim Zaghib joined Hydro-Quebec in 1995 and joined the Hydro-Quebec Research Institute where he became the initiator of work on lithium-ion batteries carried out by the company. Investissement Québec points out that it is associated with more than 550 patents and 60 licenses, and has participated in more than 420 articles and 22 monographs.

Since 2017, he was at the head of the Center of Excellence in Transportation Electrification and Energy Storage of Hydro-Quebec (CEETSE).

Guy LeBlanc, President and CEO of Investissement Quebec, believes that Quebec has all the minerals needed to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles. In his opinion, this rapidly growing world market represents a huge opportunity for Quebec exports, a potential to which Dr. Zaghib can make a significant contribution.

Prior to joining Hydro-Québec, Karim Zaghib obtained a doctorate in electrochemistry from the Polytechnic Institute of Grenoble and conducted research at the Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris. He was also a researcher at the Osaka National Research Institute, Japan.