Dr. Eric Darcy completed a 38-year career at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. As NASA's Battery Systems Technical Discipline Lead, his work focused on cell and battery design, verification, and safety assessments for crewed spacecraft applications. His primary specialization is achieving passive propagation resistance (PPR) against single-cell thermal runaway events and characterizing the mechanics of latent manufacturing defects that cause catastrophic internal short circuits.

He is the co-inventor of the patented On-demand Internal Short Circuit (ISC) Device. His research extensively utilized high-speed synchrotron radiographic and calorimetric analysis to characterize cell responses during thermal runaway. He currently heads Darcy Batt Consulting, LLC. (Episode S1E6)

Jeff Dahn is recognized as one of the pioneering developers of the Li-ion battery. His career began at Moli Energy in the 1980s, where he was a key figure in the world’s first commercialization of rechargeable lithium cells. His 20-year research partnership with 3M led to the co-invention and commercialization of NMC cathode materials and advancements in alloy-based anode materials. Since 2016, he has led a research partnership with Tesla as the NSERC/Tesla Canada Industrial Research Chair. Dahn's recent work has concentrated on increasing the energy density, improving the lifetime and lowering the cost of Li-ion batteries. 
As a dedicated mentor, Dahn has trained over 65 Ph.D. Students and 30 Postdoctoral fellows, many of whom now lead the global battery industry. He is the author of over 850 refereed journal papers. His many honors include the Order of Canada, the Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal (2017) and the Olin Palladium Medal (2023). (Episode S1E2)

Dr. Karim Zaghib is a world-renowned electrochemist and materials scientist whose career uniquely bridges the industrial and academic spheres of lithium-ion battery development. Early in his career, he worked in Europe before moving to Japan during the initial commercial boom of lithium-ion technology.

He is perhaps best known for his long and impactful tenure at Hydro-Québec, where he made instrumental contributions to the commercialization of Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP) and Lithium Titanate (LTO), and the licensing of those technologies. During this time, he fostered fruitful collaborations with battery pioneers like Michel Armand, Michel Gauthier, and John Goodenough.

Boasting an exceptional academic impact with an h-index over 100, Dr. Zaghib is highly active in the global battery community as an entrepreneur and networker. Today, he continues his research and mentorship as a Professor at Concordia University in Montreal. (Episode S1E8)

Karthik Ramaswami is the CTO at Sionic Energy. His career began in 1990 with twelve years at Duracell, in the nascent Li-ion development group. He has since held technical leadership roles across a broad range of companies such as Spectrum Brands (Rayovac), EaglePicher, Integer (Greatbatch), Eaton, and Pellion Technologies, covering a wide range of chemistries including Li-ion, Li primary, alkaline, zinc-air, and magnesium-ion systems. 
He has directed the engineering and manufacturing transfer of specialized power sources, notably the battery for the world's first leadless pacemaker. He holds a Ph.D. in Electrochemical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology. (Episode S1E5)

Michel Gauthier holds a PhD in Electrochemistry (UdeM) and completed post-doctoral research in Solid Ionics at Grenoble, France. Joining Hydro-Québec’s IREQ in 1972, he established a lithium battery R&D group that grew to 140 personnel, focusing on Solid-State Lithium Metal Polymer (LMP) technology. His tenure included leading international consortia with CNRS, Total, Yuasa, and 3M/USABC to advance LMP from fundamental chemistry to the ArGo Tech pilot production facility.

In 2001, Gauthier founded Phostech Lithium to commercialize Lithium Iron Phosphate (LFP). He successfully consolidated a complex patent portfolio between UT Austin, UdeM, CNRS, and Hydro-Québec, scaling LFP production with Süd-Chemie. In 2020, he incorporated Ignis Lithium to develop a high-throughput melt-synthesis process, targeting thermodynamic and economic efficiencies to compete with incumbent solid-state LFP manufacturing. (Episode S1E3)

Oliver Gross is a Senior Fellow at Stellantis and a veteran and leader of the battery industry. His career in electrochemistry spans over 30 years, beginning as a student engineer at Electrovaya and as a Research Engineer at Ultralife Corporation, where he developed primary lithium cells for military and aerospace applications. Gross spent a foundational decade at Valence Technology (1996–2006) as a Senior Battery Design Engineer, a pivotal era for the commercialization of phosphate-based lithium chemistries. He later managed engineering services and advanced products at Cobasys before joining Chrysler (FCA/Stellantis) in 2010. For over 15 years, he has served as the corporate Subject Matter Expert for Energy Storage Systems, leading global core technology strategy for HEV, PHEV, and BEV platforms. A prolific inventor with over 30 patents, Gross is a recognized authority on battery safety and systems integration. (Episode S1E4)

William Howard is a veteran electrochemical engineer with over five decades of experience developing primary and rechargeable battery technologies for industrial and biomedical applications. He started at Gould National Batteries in the 1960s, working with fuel cells, metal-air systems, and early carbon fluorination. Through the early 1970s he evaluated Leclanché cells from around the world and gained his first exposure to lithium technology, followed by lithium-sulfur and molten-salt systems tied to Argonne National Laboratory.

He then moved to Medtronic, where he spent the heart of his career developing batteries for implantable medical devices. He touched nearly every major lithium primary chemistry of the era, from lithium-iodine to lithium silver vanadium oxide, before transitioning in the 1990s to rechargeable lithium-ion systems with the unique performance and safety constraints that implantable applications demand. (Episode S1E7)

Dr. Yuan Gao is a Li-ion battery materials scientist and executive. His research began in the 1990s as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Jeff Dahn’s laboratory, where he collaborated with Moli Energy to characterize and optimize manganese spinel cathode materials.

During a 14-year tenure at FMC Corporation's Lithium Division, Dr. Gao developed and patented cathode technologies designed to increase charge voltage and mitigate impedance buildup—chemistries that remain standard in contemporary portable electronics. Transitioning from applied research to commercial operations, he ultimately served as Global Marketing Director at FMC. He subsequently held the position of President and CEO at Pulead Technology Industry Co., directing the industrial-scale manufacturing of Li-ion cathode materials in China. He brings a unique perspective on the industrial realities of the Li-ion market in North America and Asia. (Episode S1E9)