Dr. Vahid Dehnavi is a materials engineer with special expertise in metallurgy, microstructural characterization, failure analysis, protective coatings, lightweight metals and alloys (aluminum, magnesium, and titanium), and corrosion. Dr. Dehnavi has developed expertise in X-ray diffraction (XRD), namely grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD) for coatings and films, scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDX), metallography and, more recently, X-ray microtomography. He is familiar with many materials processing techniques and can use his expertise to help various clients from the automotive, aerospace, and manufacturing sectors.

He is Senior Research Scientist at Surface Science Western. He joined in 2019, bringing with him over sixteen years of academic and industrial research experience. He has been involved in several industry-sponsored and applied research projects including: 1) the corrosion behaviour of copper-coated nuclear waste containers, 2) investigating the microstructure and corrosion properties of magnesium alloys for the automotive industry, 3) plasma electrolytic oxidation (PEO) protective coatings on lightweight metals, 4) investigating the microstructure and corrosion behaviour of additively manufactured (3D printing) titanium alloys, 5) improving the mechanical properties of automotive parts manufactured by powder metallurgy for the automotive industry, and 6) crevice corrosion of Ni-Cr-Mo alloys.

Additionally, Vahid has been involved in a number of multidisciplinary research projects with research teams from various organizations and has experience managing projects as well as supervising and mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows. He has several peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations and is serving as a volunteer technical reviewer for the journal Surface Coatings & Technology. He serves as an Adjunct Research Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Western University and as a Researcher in the Western University Bone and Joint Institute.