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At UBC Science, outstanding scientists and students strive to unravel the principles that underlie our universe - from the subatomic to the macroscopic, from pure mathematics to biotechnology, from ecosystems to galactic systems. Through the breadth and depth of our academic endeavours and the calibre of the people who make up our community, we take pride in discovering new scientific knowledge and preparing Canada’s and the world’s next generation of scientists.

A diverse range of highly ranked programs

With access to master’s and doctoral degrees through nine departments and 350 research groups, our graduate students work with world-class faculty to explore the basic sciences, and to pursue interdisciplinary and applied research across departments and units. UBC’s research excellence in environmental science, math, physics, plant and animal science, computer science, geology and biology is consistently rated best in Canada by international and national ranking agencies.

Committed to outstanding graduate training

UBC Science houses a wide range of prestigious NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience and related industry programs: from atmospheric aerosols to high-throughput biology, from biodiversity research and ecosystems services to plant cell wall biosynthesis, from quantum science and new materials to applied geochemistry. The options for enriched graduate training in industry related fields are almost endless.

World-class research infrastructure

Our affiliated institutes and centres include UBC's Michael Smith Laboratories, Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, Biodiversity Research Centre, Life Sciences Institute, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, Mineral Deposit Research Unit, and TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics.

Top research talent

UBC Science boasts more than 50 Canada Research Chairs, 12 fellows of the Royal Society of London, and has been home to two Nobel Laureates. Our graduate students have won 15 prestigious Vanier Scholarships.

A diverse, supportive community of scholars

UBC Science is committed to excellence, collaboration and inclusion. Women account for 41 per cent of the Faculty's graduate enrollments, and the percentage of international students has increased to 50 per cent over the past decade.

Mission
To nurture an exceptional scientific learning and research environment for the people of British Columbia, Canada, and the world.
 

Research Centres

Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology

Computational Sciences and Mathematics

Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

Genomics and Biological Sciences

Human-Computer Interaction

Life Sciences

Chemistry and Materials Science

Physics

Sustainability

Research Facilities

Designed to inspire collaboration and creativity across disciplines, the Earth Sciences Building (ESB) lies at the heart of the science precinct on UBC’s Vancouver Campus. The $75 million facility is home to Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Statistics, the Pacific Institute of the Mathematical Sciences, and the dean’s office of the Faculty of Science. ESB’s teaching facilities will help Canada meet the challenges of a transforming and growing resource sector. Just as importantly, the researchers and students working and learning in the facility will offer a valuable flow of well-trained talent, new ideas, and fresh professional perspectives to industry.

Research Highlights

Receiving more than $120 million in annual research funding, UBC Science faculty members conduct top-tier research in the life, physical, earth and computational sciences. Their discoveries help build our understanding of natural laws—driving insights into sustainability, biodiversity, human health, nanoscience and new materials, probability, artificial intelligence, exoplanets and a wide range of other areas.

UBC Science boasts 50 Canada Research Chairs and 10 fellows of the Royal Society of London, and has been home to two Nobel Laureates. 

Schools / Departments

Department

Graduate Degree Programs

Research Supervisors in Faculty

or browse the list of faculty members in various academic units. You may click each unit to view faculty members appointed in that unit. View the full faculty member directory for more search and filter options.
Name Academic Unit(s) Research Interests
O'Connor, Mary Department of Zoology climate change, ocean, seafood, seagrass, eelgrass, invertebrate, ecology, environment,
Oberg, Gunilla Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability Use of knowledge in environmental decision making, Chlorine biogeochemistry in soil
Ollivier, Rachel Department of Mathematics Langlands Programme, a central theme in pure mathematics which predicts deep connections between number theory and representation theory;
Orsi, Anais Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Atmospheric measurement techniques; Physics of snow and ice; Cryosphere processes, n.e.c.; Isotope geochemistry; Geochronology; Environmental geochemistry; Quantitative methods for environmental sciences; Earth system sciences; Climate change impacts and adaptation; climate change; Polar climate; Data analysis, inverse modeling; Paleoclimate
Ortner, Christoph Department of Mathematics Numerical analysis; Mathematical modelling and simulation; Partial and ordinary differential equations; Computational chemistry; Condensed matter modelling and density functional theory; Numerical modelling and mechanical characterisation; Numerical Analysis & Scientific Computing; Applied Analysis; Multi-scale Modelling and Coarse-graining; Molecular Simulation; Scientific Machine-learning, in particular for applications in multi-scale modelling
Osborne, Lisa Department of Microbiology & Immunology influence that the bacteria that live on and in our intestines, lungs and skin have on human health; understanding how the host recognizes the diverse species that reside in the gut - from microscopic viruses to large, multicellular helminthic worms - and tailors an immune response of the appropriate scope and magnitude necessary to achieve homeostasis
Oser, Scott Department of Physics & Astronomy Physical sciences; dark matter; Elementary Particles; neutrinos; particle physics; statistical methods for physics; gravitational wave astronomy; LISA
Otto, Sarah Department of Zoology evolution, mathematical modeling, population genetics, genomic evolution, evolution of sex, yeast experimental evolution, Population genetics and evolutionary biology, yeast
Pai, Dinesh Department of Computer Science Robotics, computer graphics, medical imaging, neuroscience, sensorimotor computation
Pakhomov, Yevhenii Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Feeding ecophysiology of aquatic invertebrates and fishes, Antarctic ecology, Antarctic krill biology, Tunicate biology, Fishery ecology, Stable isotope ecology
Pante, Nelly Department of Zoology Molecular trafficking pathways within the cell
Parfrey, Laura Department of Botany, Department of Zoology Microbial ecology, microbial diversity, microbiome, protists
Park, Mi Jung Department of Computer Science Privacy-preserving machine learning algorithms, Compressing neural network models using Bayesian methods, Relationships between differential privacy and other emerging notions in machine learning
Pasquier, Thomas Department of Computer Science Development of more transparent computer systems, Whole-system provenance, Computational experiments reproducibility, Intrusion detection, privacy and compliance
Patey, Grenfell Department of Chemistry Liquid dynamics, chemical physics
Pauly, Daniel Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Department of Zoology World fisheries; Marine life; Global catch; Management of fisheries; Fish growth and ecophysiology
Pawlowicz, Richard Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Oceans and Inland Waters; ocean physics; properties of seawater; geophysical fluid dynamics; Nonlinear waves
Peacock, Simon Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Natural sciences; metamorphic petrology; Tectonics; earthquakes
Peirce, Anthony Department of Mathematics Scientific computing, nonlinear dynamics and applied partial differential equations
Perrin, David Department of Chemistry Bioorganic Chemistry, Combinatorial Chemistry Enzyme Mimics Antisense Therapies, Radiopharmaceuticals
Picard, Sebastien Department of Mathematics Differential geometry
Piret, James Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering Biomedical engineering, regenerative medicine Cell-based therapies have the potential to provide improved treatments for major diseases such as cancer and diabetes
Plan, Yaniv Department of Mathematics applied probability, high-dimensional inference, random matrix theory, compressive sensing, and matrix completion.
Pleiss, Geoffrey Department of Statistics Statistical theory and modeling; Machine learning; Computational methods in statistics; Spatial statistics; Numerical analysis; Machine Learning; neural networks; Gaussian processes; Bayesian optimization; reliable deep learning
Plotkin, Steven Department of Physics & Astronomy Biophysics theory and computation

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Graduate Student Stories

Katrina Bergmann

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Using conventional computations and quantum simulations to accelerate the in silico design of highly efficient optoelectronic materials

Jessica Koski

Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (PhD)

Implementation of Indigenous rights to lands & resources

Gabriel Currier

Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)

Extremal combinatorics

Rapichan Phurisamban

Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (PhD)

Relationalities and River Flows: Toward a Socially-Equitable and Bioculturally-Conscious Environmental Flow Management

Icíar Fernández Boyano

Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD)

Redefining preeclampsia in the placenta

Neha Sharma-Mascarenhas

Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (PhD)

Analyzing data and policy outcomes for repair, reuse, and recycling for end-of-life electronics

Sahar Ghadirianniari

Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Engineering (PhD)

Mud rush Risk Management in Block Cave Mining

Natasha Klasios

Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)

Investigating the ecological impacts of microplastics and temperature warming in aquatic ecosystems
All Student Stories

Recent Publications

This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Science.

 

Advances and Applications of Capillary Electrophoresis Mass Spectrometry in Food Analysis: Strategies for Online and Offline Preconcentration
Publication: Electrophoresis
UBC Author(s): David Chen (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01730835
Publication Date: 2025

View Publication
River co-learning arenas: principles and practices for transdisciplinary knowledge co-creation and multi-scalar (inter)action
Publication: Local Environment
UBC Author(s): Leila Harris (Institute for Resources,Environment & Sustainability / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 13549839
Volume: 30
Page Range: 58-80
Publication Date: 2025

View Publication
Democratizing Science in the Cloud
Publication: Eos (United States)
UBC Author(s): James Colliander (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00963941
Volume: 106
Page Range: 13-15
Publication Date: JANUARY 2025

View Publication
Testing for a difference in means of a single feature after clustering
Publication: Biostatistics (Oxford, England)
UBC Author(s): Lucy Gao (Statistics / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 26
Publication Date: 31 December 2024

View Publication
Simultaneous Unbinned Differential Cross-Section Measurement of Twenty-Four (Formula presented) Kinematic Observables with the ATLAS Detector
Publication: Physical Review Letters
UBC Author(s): Colin Gay (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00319007
Volume: 133
Publication Date: 31 December 2024

View Publication
Bayesian Decision Curve Analysis With Bayesdca
Publication: Statistics in Medicine
UBC Author(s): Keegan Korthauer (Statistics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 02776715
Volume: 43
Page Range: 6042-6058
Publication Date: 30 December 2024

View Publication
Competing excitation quenching and charge exchange in ultracold Li-Ba<sup>+</sup> collisions
Publication: Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics
UBC Author(s): Kirk Madison (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09534075
Volume: 57
Publication Date: 27 December 2024

View Publication
Interaction between the Polyelectrolytes Unfractionated Heparin and Universal Heparin Reversal Agents
Publication: Journal of Physical Chemistry B
UBC Author(s): Suzana Straus (Chemistry / Faculty of Science), Charles Haynes (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15206106
Volume: 128
Page Range: 12808-12817
Publication Date: 26 December 2024

View Publication
A Gaze into Argumentative Chatbots: Exploring the Influence of Challenger Arguments on Reflection and Attention
Publication: Proceedings of the 24th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2024
UBC Author(s): Cristina Conati (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Publication Date: 26 December 2024

View Publication
An Intelligent Pedagogical Agent for In-The-Wild Interaction in an Open-Ended Learning Environment for Computational Thinking
Publication: Proceedings of the 24th ACM International Conference on Intelligent Virtual Agents, IVA 2024
UBC Author(s): Cristina Conati (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Publication Date: 26 December 2024

View Publication
Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in (Formula presented) and (Formula presented) Collisions with the ATLAS Detector
Publication: Physical Review Letters
UBC Author(s): Colin Gay (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00319007
Volume: 133
Publication Date: 20 December 2024

View Publication
Thermoelectric CO2RR electrolysis
Publication: Device
UBC Author(s): Curtis Berlinguette (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2
Publication Date: 20 December 2024

View Publication
The characean cytoskeleton: Spatial control in the cortical cytoplasm
Publication: The Cytoskeleton of the Algae
UBC Author(s): Geoff Wasteneys (Botany / Faculty of Science)
Page Range: 273-295
Publication Date: 20 December 2024

View Publication
Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector
Publication: Physical review letters
UBC Author(s): Colin Gay (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 133
Page Range: 252301
Publication Date: 20 December 2024

View Publication
Tracking the gene expression programs and clonal relationships that underlie mast, myeloid, and T lineage specification from stem cells
Publication: Cell Systems
UBC Author(s): Geoffrey Schiebinger (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 24054712
Volume: 15
Page Range: 1245-1263.e10
Publication Date: 18 December 2024

View Publication
The nature of 'jaws': A new predatory representative of Provora and the ultrastructure of nibbling protists
Publication: Open Biology
UBC Author(s): Patrick John Keeling (Botany / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 14
Publication Date: 18 December 2024

View Publication
Closing the Knowledge Gap of Post-Acquisition Sample Normalization in Untargeted Metabolomics
Publication: ACS Measurement Science Au
UBC Author(s): Tao Huan (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 4
Page Range: 702-711
Publication Date: 18 December 2024

View Publication
Significant Chiral Asymmetry Observed in Neutral Amino Acid Ultraviolet Photolysis
Publication: Journal of the American Chemical Society
UBC Author(s): Ilsa Cooke (Chemistry / Faculty of Science), Kirk Madison (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science), Takamasa Momose (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00027863
Volume: 146
Page Range: 34333-34340
Publication Date: 18 December 2024

View Publication
Genome dynamics across the evolutionary transition to endosymbiosis
Publication: Current Biology
UBC Author(s): Kayla King (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09609822
Volume: 34
Page Range: 5659-5670.e7
Publication Date: 16 December 2024

View Publication
Scattering and blow-up for threshold even solutions to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation with repulsive delta potential at low frequencies
Publication: Journal of Differential Equations
UBC Author(s): Stephen James Gustafson (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00220396
Volume: 412
Page Range: 758-796
Publication Date: 15 December 2024

View Publication
The sulfur isotopic composition of Cenozoic pyrite is affected by methane content and depositional environment
Publication: Earth and Planetary Science Letters
UBC Author(s): Harold Bradbury (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0012821X
Volume: 648
Publication Date: 15 December 2024

View Publication

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Recent Thesis Submissions

Doctoral Citations

A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
Year Citation Program
2023 Dr. Huet developed numerical tools that allow fast and accurate simulations of complex fluid systems, ranging from rockfall dynamics to cell-resolved biological flows. His open-source software contributions can be used to better design microfluidic cell-sorting devices, thus speeding up many labour intensive tasks in biotechnology research. Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Lan identified three genes that regulate an important signal molecule NHP in systemic acquired resistance in plants. The three genes function together and negatively regulate defence-related genes in epigenetic level. These findings assist us in understanding plant defence mechanism and plant disease control. Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)
2023 Dr. Dai explored the intersection of classical machine learning and quantum computing, aiming to enhance algorithms for complex quantum problems. It highlights the development of a quantum-enhanced feature mapping algorithm and the practical application of quantum regression models. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2023 Dr. Zhang developed the gluing method to construct the bubble tower of the ancient solutions and infinite time blow-up solutions for the critical heat equations, and finite time blow-up solutions simultaneously at any prescribed N points for the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation. Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Kukor developed new tools to study the crystallization of small molecules. He applied these tools to investigate and optimize the crystallization of two drug molecules, demonstrating the benefits of continuous crystallization. These new tools are now being used by pharmaceutical companies to study and improve the production of drugs. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2023 Dr. Krekhno investigated mechanisms of pathogenic E. coli-caused infantile diarrhea, providing insights into host-microbe interactions. He employed computational and molecular biology tools to provide the first comprehensive overview of the changes in the regulation of gene expression during infection. Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)
2023 Dr. Davis studied the effects of temperature and resource availability on ecosystem functioning. She showed that rates of nitrogen supply usually accelerate with warming, and documented two important ecological effects of this pattern. She also identified a key limiting resource in a seagrass ecosystem recovering from decline. Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)
2023 Dr. Ripoche studied evolved stellar populations, from giant stars to their remnants. He developed new tools to analyze data from X-ray space telescopes, measure distances in space, and identify dead stars, called white dwarfs, in large surveys. His findings will help us better understand the structure and history of our Galaxy and the Universe. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Crescenzo measured the viscosity of airborne aerosol particles formed from the gas emissions from plants. His thesis showed that many of these airborne particles are more viscous than tar pitch, or even solid like glass at many humidities & temperatures. His studies are helpful to improve the accuracy of climate and air quality predictions. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2023 Dr. Wang devised and carried out landmark experiments using radio-frequency and millimeter-wave fields to control and probe the evolution of ultracold molecular plasmas. His findings have provided new insights into ultracold neutral plasmas specifically, and into disordered many-body systems in general. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

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