Philip D. Evans

After completing his doctorate studies, Evans worked at the Dundee Institute of Technology on high-pressure sap displacement in spruce wood. In 1986, he moved to Australia to become a lecturer at the Australian National University, where he taught wood science and processing. At ANU, he focused on the weathering and protection of wood, collaborating with organizations including CSIRO and Japan's Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute (FFPRI). He worked upon the understanding of the photodegradation of wood and the use of UV stabilizers and chemical modifications.^[5][6]

In 2001, Evans joined the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Initially as the director of UBC's Centre for Advanced Wood Processing, he later returned to full-time research and teaching, establishing international collaborations and applying advanced imaging techniques such as transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray micro-CT and DART-TOF mass spectrometry to study wood microstructure.

Evans worked on wood surface degradation and protection,^[7] describing the rapid surface delignification of wood due to environmental exposure and developed new approaches to mitigate UV-induced damage.^[8][9] His research also includes studies on wood surface checking and durability, and has received -until June 2025- more than 5,000 citations at Google Scholar.^[10]

He has been a member of the editorial boards of the wood-related journals, International Wood Products Journal and Forest Products Journal. In 2009, he was elected as a British Columbia Leadership Chair in Advanced Forest Products Manufacturing Technology at the UBC in Vancouver.^[11]

In October 2023, a meta-research carried out by John Ioannidis et al. at Stanford University included Philip Evans in Elsevier Data 2022, where he was ranked in the top 2% of researchers in wood science (forestry – materials), having a c-score of 3.369,^[12] while in August 2024, he also acquired the same high ranking.^[13]

• Google Scholar
• International Research Group on Wood Protection
• University of British Columbia