Dr. Hadis Zarrin

Dr. Hadis Zarrin is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering at Toronto Metropolitan University, the Director of Nano-Engineering Laboratory for Energy and Environmental Technologies (NLEET), and the vice-chair of Energy Division and Chemical Institute of Canada. She holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Waterloo with >11-year experience in nanostructured materials development for electrochemical systems. 

Her research is focused on the design and engineering of smart multifunctional nanostructures and nanocomposites for clean energy storage and conversion technologies (e.g., batteries, fuel cells, supercapacitors, electrolyzers, etc.), wearable biosensor systems, smart textiles, smart coatings, and environmental remediation. Her achievements have resulted in five awards, one patent, three book chapters, and >20 peer-reviewed published papers in prestigious journals with >1230 citations until July 2021 (h-index of 12–gScholar). As of July 2021, Dr. Zarrin has secured >$1,000,000 research funds for NLEET from internal and external funding organizations including Toronto Metropolitan University, NSERC, Mitacs, and the Canadian Department of National Defence. 

From 2017 onwards, she has been supervising >55 undergraduate students through capstone projects and co-op research assistantship positions, 3 Master’s students, 6 PhDs, one postdoctoral fellow, and one visiting scholar from diverse disciplines and underrepresented groups (e.g., females, racialized minorities, etc.). These students and researchers acquire advanced technical skills in nanotechnology, materials engineering, and electrochemical engineering as well as well-rounded soft skills as a result of interdisciplinary collaboration with industrial partners and diverse fields, enhancing their job readiness after graduation.

Educating students to become future leaders in an engineering field is a challenging, and deeply rewarding task. Future leaders in engineering will be those who have learned to cope with complexity and ambiguity. To do that they must be able to zoom in/out the issues so that while focusing on specific details, they have a big picture of the whole subject. Recognizing these needs motivates Dr. Zarrin as an educator to teach the students to become insatiable learners, creative problem solvers, and prepared for the complex world they will face after leaving the campus.

Life is about solving problems, and every obstacle is the way forward by making improvements, not excuses. Dr. Zarrin believes self-care, commitment, resilience and perseverance will take you far. To do so, her advice for graduate students at Ryerson are: (i) determine your priorities by considering what matters most to you; (ii) know your strengths; (iii) think long-term, but keep your options open, and (iv) be always true to yourself and consider what you are most passionate about.

To Dr. Zarrin, materials are the foundations of everything we see and use in our everyday life. Any existing or emerging technology becomes functional based on its constituting ingredients and materials. On the other hand, the increase of global concerns surrounding energy consumption, depletion of fossil fuels as the main source of power generation, climate change and environmental quality have always urged me to contribute to these vital fields and come up with more sustainable and cleaner technologies for both energy consumption and generation.

Dr. Zarrin always strives to provide equitable, diverse and inclusive research and teaching environments for the students where all feel welcome, supported and respected. To do so, Dr. Zarrin is committed to (i) using non-gendered, inclusive and unbiased language in classes or research meetings; (ii) accomodating the needs of people from different situations such as flexible hours for people with children and caregivers to ageing parents or other dependents, removing barriers for persons with disabilities and supporting career interruptions for individuals with familial issues, and cultural and bereavement leave; and (iii) create a formal/informal mentorship program and EDI workshop for newly hired trainees and students.