Tahir Khan is a professor in the Schulich School of Engineering's Department of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering and has been involved in materials research since graduating from Cambridge University (U.K) in 1992. His research work focuses on surfaces and interfaces with the goal of trying to join new advanced alloys which are difficult to join with conventional welding methods, and to engineer surfaces in order to enhance wear resistant properties. Recently, in collaboration with a company in Calgary (Hyperion Technologies Inc) he has developed nanostructured cermet coatings for applications in the oil sands industry of Alberta. This work is taking him to the mountainous North West Frontier Province of Pakistan where he will explore avenues for extending Canadian technology to reduce wear and degradation of process machinery used in the sugar cane industry of Pakistan.