Start-up Funds Bring Back New Brunswick Researcher

FREDERICTON, NB – The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) today announced an investment of $126,526 for the laboratory equipment and research funding required to repatriate Dr Adam Dyker back to New Brunswick.

Previously a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Riverside, Dr Dyker is an emerging leader in the development of environmentally safe battery technology, and has already started his research and teaching at the University of New Brunswick (UNB).

“The funding program that the NBIF offered really helped when it came to deciding to come back to New Brunswick,” says Dr Dyker, “Just the opportunity to apply for their funding allowed me to push the boundaries of my research even further, and that’s having an impact on the quality of the results we’re starting to get in the lab.”

Today, even the most environmentally friendly batteries contain a number of highly toxic materials including the metal cadmium. Dr Dyker’s work aims to replace those toxic compounds with entirely organic ones.  He says that toxicity of batteries, and their impact on the environment relates more to their disposal than their use.

“All of the chemicals I’m using are composed of elements naturally found in humans and animals and plants; so disposing of my batteries could have virtually no effect on the environment,” Dr Dyker adds that, “the technology we’re developing has the potential to produce lighter weight batteries that store more energy, and charge faster than those currently found in the market.”

The NBIF’s contribution to Dr Dyker’s research program helped him to leverage an additional $665,000 in funding from a number of other agencies including the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and UNB.

“This is exactly the kind of results we aim to get at NBIF, when it comes to investing in applied research with the potential for commercialization,” says the foundation’s President and CEO Calvin Milbury, “bringing extremely talented researchers back to New Brunswick, and do what we can to give them the resources and support they need to get their innovations into the hands of industry.”

Dr Dyker says the organic compounds he is using could also have a positive effect on human health since less factory workers and miners will be exposed to otherwise toxic materials.

“Just the fact that the materials Dr Dyker is using are already abundantly available, and don’t have to be mined from deep inside the Earth, presents a potential cost advantage that will have a great impact on the business model industry will inevitably be able to build,” says Milbury

Originally from Saint John, Dr Dyker completed his undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of New Brunswick in 2002, and left New Brunswick to complete his academic training.