DENTON (UNT), Texas – University of North Texas Professor of Materials Science and Engineering Thomas Scharf has been elected to the national Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) board of directors.

Scharf's research interests include physical and chemical vapor deposition of ceramic and metallic thin films for moving mechanical assemblies, atomic layer deposition of nanocrystalline solid lubricant thin films for rolling element bearings, micro- and nano-tribology studies of solid lubricants and hard coatings, and more.

His work has received funding from organizations including the National Science Foundation, Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the American Chemical Society. He is an associate editor for STLE's journal Tribology Transactions and also serves on the editorial board of journals Wear and Lubrication Science. His research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Journal of Materials Science, American Chemical Society - Applied Materials and Interfaces, Applied Physics Letters, Acta Materialia and more.