Dr. Philip Egberts

PhD, PEng

Pronouns: he/him/his

Positions

Full Professor

Schulich School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Affiliations

Associate Dean - Engineering Physics

Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary

Interim Head

Schulich School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering

Contact information

pgsegber@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

Lab Website

Google Scholar

Phone number

Office: 403-220-7678

Location

Office: MEB502

For media enquiries, contact

Joe McFarland
Media Relations and Communications Specialist

Cell: +1.403.671.2710
Email: Joe.Mcfarland@ucalgary.ca

Background

Educational Background

BASc Nanoengineering Option, Division of Engineering Science, University of Toronto, 2004

MASc Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Toronto, 2006

PhD Department of Physics, McGill University, 2011

Biography

Philip Egberts obtained his Ph.D. from the McGill University in 2011. Following his PhD studies, he joined the Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics department at the University of Pennsylvania where he held a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship. He joined the University of Calgary as an Assistant Professor in 2013 and from 2019-2020 he was a visiting professor and Humboldt Fellow at the University of Hamburg. In 2022-2023, he was appointed Acting Head of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering and then to Associate Dean – Engineering Physics in 2024, and was promoted to Professor in 2023. He currently holds the Interim Head position in Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering for the 2025-2026 academic year. His current research interests focus on atomic and nanoscale investigation of adhesion, friction, and wear. Linking fundamental study of friction and lubrication with application, for example in nanoparticle enhanced lubricants and tribocorrosion has been a focus while at the University of Calgary.

Research

Areas of Research

Tribology

Our research focuses on the study friction, plasticity and wear at the nanoscale using atomic force microscopy (AFM). We investigate these problems using simple materials and determine the fundamental physical mechanisms by which they occur. By approaching these complex engineering problems at the atomic-length scale, we can reduce the complexity of the problems.

We are also able to take advantage of other modes of AFM to obtain true atomic resolution of surfaces. For example, the true atomic resolution of the (100) surface of potassium bromide (KBr). We can identify the high resolution capability of the AFM by observing single atomic vacancies at the surface. With these experiments, we hope to be able to predictively determine material parameters such as friction coefficients, plasticity/hardness and wear rates, which will be critical in the development of next generation materials and lubricants. for, example, when we image atomic stick-slip friction on an alkanethiol self-assembled monolayer grown on a Au(111) substrate, atomic lattice resolution is achieved. However, single atomic defects cannot be observed due to the "large" multi-atom contact between the AFM tip and the surface. Using AFM, we are able to resolve forces much less than 1 nN, which approaches the strength of single atomic bonds.

Materials Science

Metallurgy

Tribochemistry