Professor Nicolas Argibay PhD

• PhD in Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida, USA, 2011
• MS in Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida, USA, 2009
• BS in Mechanical Engineering, University of Florida, USA, 2006
• BS in Aerospace Engineering, University of Florida, USA, 2006

Professor Nicolas Argibay joined the University of Birmingham in November 2026 as the 125th Anniversary Chair in Interfacial Science and Engineering, a joint appointment between the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the School of Engineering and the School of Metallurgy and Materials.

Before joining Birmingham, he spent more than a decade as a research group leader at the U.S. Department of Energy's national laboratories: Sandia National Laboratories (2011–2021) and Ames National Laboratory (2021–2025). There he led programmes in structural alloy design and advanced manufacturing for sustainable energy, addressing the materials challenges that limit the efficiency of high-temperature power systems. His recent work has concentrated on refractory alloys for hydrogen-fuelled gas turbines, small modular fission reactors, and first-generation commercial fusion systems, where the thermal stability of refractory metals is attractive but room-temperature ductility and manufacturability have historically limited their adoption.

Electronic-structure-guided alloy design carried out under these programmes yielded refractory multi-principal-element alloys that combine high strength with substantial room-temperature tensile ductility, enabling practical low-temperature processing while extending operating temperatures beyond those of commercial nickel-based superalloys. New alloy compositions from this work are being pursued for commercial deployment. The same applied effort produced fundamental insights into the nature and limits of metallic bonding, including a predictive model for the maximum achievable strength of crystalline and amorphous metals, and led to high-throughput tribological testing methods that accelerate alloy discovery and bridge nanoscale phenomena to macroscale materials behaviour.

At Birmingham, Professor Argibay's research brings together computational materials science, experimental mechanics, and tribology to deliver structural and interfacial materials for the UK's transition to clean energy and for its advanced manufacturing, aerospace, and nuclear sectors. He welcomes collaboration with academic, industrial, and national-laboratory partners.

He is a recipient of an R&D 100 Award and the HENAAC Great Minds in STEM Award, and served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (2019–2025). He is also co-founder and Executive Director of The Scientific Review (www.thescientificreview.org), a non-profit organisation supporting open peer review and open science communication.

Professor Argibay welcomes enquiries from prospective PhD students and postdoctoral researchers interested in the following areas:

• Design of ductile, manufacturable refractory and multi-principal-element alloys for extreme environment applications
• Electronic-structure and theory-driven prediction of strength, ductility, and phase stability in metals and alloys
• High-temperature mechanical and tribological testing, including in-situ methods and high-throughput screening
• Friction, wear, and contact mechanics of engineering interfaces, from the nanoscale to the component scale
• Fundamental limits of strength and deformation in crystalline and amorphous metals

Applicants with backgrounds in mechanical engineering, materials science and engineering, physics, or computational science are encouraged to get in touch by email.

Professor Argibay's research addresses the structural and interfacial materials that limit the efficiency, lifetime, and cost of high-temperature energy and propulsion systems. It spans fundamental questions about the strength and deformation of metals, through computational and high-throughput experimental alloy design, to the maturation of new alloys and manufacturing routes with industrial partners. The programme is aligned with UK priorities in advanced materials, advanced manufacturing, and clean energy, such as enabling first-generation fusion and next-generation fission reactors.

Refractory and multi-principal-element alloys for extreme environments

Design and processing of refractory alloys with a combination of high-temperature strength, room-temperature ductility, manufacturability, and in-operando environment tolerance needed for hydrogen-fuelled gas turbines, small modular fission reactors, and commercial fusion systems. Many of the constituent elements of these alloys, including tungsten, niobium, tantalum, and vanadium, appear on the UK's 2024 critical minerals list, so efficient use of these elements and resilience of their supply chains are integral considerations in alloy design.

Electronic-structure-guided and data-driven alloy design

Use of electronic-structure calculations, high-throughput computation, and data-driven methods to predict strength, intrinsic ductility, and phase stability in metals and alloys, and to establish fundamental limits, including a predictive model for the maximum achievable strength of crystalline and amorphous metals. This work connects to the UK's AI-for-science agenda in materials discovery.

High-temperature and high-throughput mechanical and tribological metrology

Development of experimental methods, including spherical scratch testing and high-throughput tribological screening, that accelerate alloy discovery and link nanoscale deformation mechanisms to macroscale properties. A current priority is establishing capability at Birmingham for multi-function (indentation, scratch, and micro-tensile) mechanical testing at ultrahigh temperatures, up to 2000 °C, enabling in situ measurement of materials under service-relevant conditions.

Interfacial science and tribology

Friction, wear, and contact mechanics of engineering interfaces, from the atomic scale to components, and their role in the performance and durability of high-temperature systems.

Previous research (Sandia and Ames National Laboratories, 2011–2025)

At Sandia and Ames, Professor Argibay led programmes in structural alloy design and advanced manufacturing for sustainable energy, including the electronic-structure-guided discovery of ductile refractory multi-principal-element alloys and the development of high-throughput tribological testing methods. Earlier highlights include the design and demonstration of a stable nanocrystalline platinum–gold electrical contact alloy with ultra-low wear, and the mechanochemical formation of diamond-like carbon (DLC) from hydrocarbon vapour.