Viola Birss

Background

About Viola Birss

Viola Birss is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Calgary, having also held a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Fuel Cells and Related Clean Energy Systems for two consecutive 7-year terms. She was also one of the founders and then leader of both the Western Canada Fuel Cell Initiative and the pan-Canadian Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Canada (SOFCC) organization, then becoming the Scientific Co-Director of the SOFCC NSERC Strategic Research Network. Over the last 10 years, Dr. Birss has been the Scientific Director of CAESR-Tech (Calgary Advanced Energy Storage and Conversion Research Technologies), a large cluster of University of Calgary scientists and engineers who are focused on electrochemical technologies, e.g, electrolysis cells, fuel cells, a variety of batteries, electrochemical capacitors, electricity management, and LCA. CAESR-Tech then spawned the Materials for Electrochemical Energy Solutions NSERC CREATE center, which became its student training arm. Dr. Birss’s research team is heavily focused on the discovery of a range of structurally ordered nanomaterials, including self-supported nanoporous carbon scaffolds, for a variety of clean energy and environment applications. Her work is also centered around the application of highly active mixed conducting metal oxide perovskite catalysts that can split water and convert CO2 to clean green fuels and chemicals in high temperature solid oxide electrolysis cells, while also seamlessly running in reverse as fuel cells for the generation of combined heat and power. Other areas of research include the development of core-shell nanoparticles, protective coatings and other novel strategies to combat the corrosion of metals, as well as the development of selective and sensitive electrochemical biosensors for the detection of pathogens. Dr. Birss is a highly committed advocate for EDI, beginning in the early 90’s with her efforts to attract and retain women in science and engineering.