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Spotlight on Research & Innovation

Renewed and Sustaining

Two outstanding scientists have been named as Dalhousie’s newest research chairs and have joined the university’s exclusive partnership with Tesla.

Chongyin Yang and Michael Metzger will both work very closely with Jeff Dahn, who is currently the NSERC/Tesla Canada Inc. Industrial Research Chair and Canada Research Chair in Materials for Advanced Batteries.

“Dr. Yang and Dr. Metzger bring new ideas, new methods, and new expertise as well as a full commitment to electric transportation and renewable energy to the partnership,” says Dr. Dahn.

Dr. Yang, the Tesla Canada Research Chair comes to Dal from the University of Maryland, where he led research projects on material and device development for high energy aqueous lithium-ion batteries. His research group will focus on developing high-performance materials that will contribute to lower-cost, longer lifetime, and higher-energy battery technologies as the next-generation energy storage solution for electric vehicles and sustainable green energy.

Dr. Metzger, the Herzberg-Dahn Chair, brings research experience from close collaboration with BASF and BMW as well as work as a research engineer for Robert Bosch, the largest supplier for the automotive industry. His research group will focus on developing new methods of studying performance and longevity to provide insight that will help develop new electrode materials and electrolytes for stationary and electric vehicle batteries.

Year in Review

Focus on Research

Woman placing a mask prototype on a man’s face

Emergency Innovation

In response to the critical need for locally available personal protective equipment, Dalhousie engineering students, alumni and researchers joined the regional Emergency Innovation Team, which connects experts and industry partners to find solutions. Key initiatives have included: modifying equipment already in hospitals to decontaminate medical masks, designing a face shield for infection prevention, concept designs for intubation canopies, and exploring how existing prototypes could be refocused to respond to COVID-19.

Researcher in a lab pipetting samples into a tube

Testing the waters

Dalhousie is leading a unique initiative intended to develop a wastewater surveillance approach for SARS-CoV-2 throughout Nova Scotia. Studies have suggested that wastewater testing can detect the virus possibly weeks before someone develops symptoms or receives a positive test result. The test was developed by Dr. Gagnon and his team, and LuminUltra Technologies, a Canadian biotechnology company that recently filed a patent for the first complete rapid, on-site COVID-19 wastewater testing device.

Baby chicks at the Agricultural Campus

Producing antibodies

The Atlantic Poultry Research Centre on the Agricultural Campus partnered with AffinityImmuno Inc, in Prince Edward Island, one of the first laboratories to manufacture antibodies against COVID-19. After injecting chickens with COVID-19 spike protein, which presents no risk to the hens, the researchers collect their eggs and send them to AffinityImmuno where they harvest antibodies against COVID-19 from the yolks.

A right whale jumping out of the ocean

Collision modeling

North Atlantic right whales’ coastal habitats and tendency to stay close to the water’s surface make them vulnerable to deadly collisions with ships. Dal scientists constructed a biophysical model that predicts the stresses whales experience during collisions. The model shows that vessels of all sizes can cause stresses greater than the critical (lethal) level, and that large vessels produce stresses much larger than this even when travelling at reduced speeds, like 10 knots.

Dr. Erin Johnson looking at a chemistry model

Best young chemist

Erin Johnson, a professor in Dalhousie’s Faculty of Science, has received the 2020 Rutherford Memorial Medal in Chemistry. Dr. Johnson is recognized internationally as a rapidly rising star in theoretical chemistry, where computational tools are used to model chemistry at the atomic level. With possible real-world applications, those computational models are rapidly gaining prominence with possible global benefits, including the design of new drugs, catalysts and materials for energy applications.

Professor Jennifer Llewelyn

Transforming justice

The new Restorative Research, Innovation & Education Lab (RRIELab), located in the Schulich School of Law, will be led by a fully funded chair held by Professor Jennifer Llewelyn, a distinguished global leader in restorative justice. The initial focus of the RRIELab, which launched in 2020-2021 with the support of the Donald R. Sobey Foundation, is accelerating the development of restorative justice as a key component to transforming the justice system in Canada, as well as supporting the development of restorative cities around the world and responding to institutional abuses and failures.

Salmon filets on a cutting board

Informing choice

Stefanie Colombo, an assistant professor of Aquaculture explored the nutritional differences between salmon. Her research, published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Research, produced some surprising findings she hopes will dispel misunderstandings about farmed salmon. It's really the species of salmon that makes the biggest difference in nutritional quality — not whether it was farm raised or wild caught, or whether it's certified organic or environmentally certified.

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