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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
Berciu, Mona Department of Physics & Astronomy Electronic and magnetic properties of condensed matter and supraconductivity; Physical sciences; condensed matter theory; polarons, bipolarons; strongly correlated systems
Berlinguette, Curtis Department of Chemistry, Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering Combinatorial Chemistry; CO2 conversion and utilization; clean energy; advanced solar cells; electrochromic windows; dynamic windows; hydrogen fuels production; catalysis; robotics and automation; machine learning / artificial intelligence
Bertram, Allan Department of Chemistry Atmospheric sciences; Chemical sciences; Atmosphere (Including Chemical Aspects); Physical and analytical chemistry of atmospheric aerosols
Beschastnikh, Ivan Department of Computer Science Computer and information sciences; software engineering; distributed systems; cloud computing; software analysis; Machine Learning
Bizzotto, Dan Department of Chemistry Electroanalytical chemistry; Electrochemistry; Colloid and surface chemistry; Electrochemical Systems; Surface Characterization; Surfaces, Interfaces and Thin Layers; Sensors and Devices; Electrochemical and Fuel Cells; biosensors; electrocatalysis; fluorescence microscopy; interfacial analysis; self assembled monolayers; spectroelectrochemistry
Blakney, Anna Michael Smith Laboratories, School of Biomedical Engineering Biomedical materials; Medical molecular engineering of nucleic acids and proteins; Gene and molecular therapy; Gene delivery; RNA; Biomaterials; Immunoengineering
Bloem-Reddy, Benjamin Department of Statistics developing methods for evolving networks whose history is unobserved; distributional limits of preferential attachment networks; uses of symmetry in statistics, computation, and machine learning
Bohlmann, Joerg Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Botany plant biochemistry, forestry genomics, forest health, conifers, poplar, bark beetle, mountain pine beetle, natural products, secondary metabolites, terpenes, floral scent, grapevine, Conifer genomics Forest health genomics Mountain pine beetle, fungus, pine interactions and genomics Chemical ecology of conifer, insect interactions
Boley, Aaron Department of Physics & Astronomy Astronomy and Astrophysics; Planet formation, protoplanetary disk evolution, formation of meteorite parent bodies
Borduas-Dedekind, Nadine Department of Chemistry Chemical sciences; atmospheric chemistry; chemical mechanisms; atmospheric ice nucleation; Biogeochemistry; mass spectrometry; Photochemistry; indoor chemistry; atmospheric aerosols; singlet oxygen
Bostock, Michael Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences structure of the Canadian upper mantle, Geophysics, formation and evolution of the first continental landmasses, the structure and dynamics of subduction zones
Bouchard-Cote, Alexandre Department of Statistics machine/statistical learning; mathematical side of the subject as well as in applications in linguistics and biology
Bowman, William Department of Computer Science Computer and information sciences; Programming languages and software engineering; Programming languages; Compilers; programming languages
Boyd, David Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs Human rights
Bradbury, Hal Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Chemical oceanography; Ocean biogeochemistry; Marine geology; Isotope geochemistry; Biogeochemistry; Paleoceanography; Chemical Oceanography; Reactive Transport Modelling; Carbon cycle; Marine Sedimentary Environments; Early Diagenesis; Biogeochemical Cycles; marine Carbon Dioxide Removal
Brauner, Colin Department of Zoology Gas exchange, ion regulation and acid-base balance in fish, Evolution and comparative physiology
Bruce, Heather Department of Zoology Evolution of developmental systems; Evolutionary developmental biology (evo devo); Arthropods; Novel structures; Production of morphological diversity by genetic networks; Evolution of genetic networks over hundreds of millions of years; Evolution of morphology over hundreds of millions of years; Appendages
Brumer, Harry Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Chemistry Biochemistry; Chemical sciences; Genomics; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; biomass; carbohydrates; cellulose; Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis; Enzymes; microbiota; plant cell walls; polysaccharides
Bryan, Jim Department of Mathematics Algebraic and differential geometry; Algebraic geometry, moduli spaces, enumerative invariants related to theoretical physics.
Bryman, Douglas Department of Physics & Astronomy Particle physics, experimental; Experimental Particle Physics; Applied physics; physics
Burke, Sarah Department of Physics & Astronomy, Department of Chemistry Scanning probe microscopy, organic materials, nanoscale materials, surface physics, photovoltaics
Bustin, Robert Marc Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Unconventional Petroleum Reservoirs
Campbell, Trevor Department of Statistics automated, scalable Bayesian inference algorithms; Bayesian nonparametrics; streaming data; Bayesian theory; Probabilistic Inference; computational statistics; large-scale data
Carenini, Giuseppe Department of Computer Science Natural language processing
Cautis, Sabin Department of Mathematics Mathematics and statistics; Geometry

Pages

Graduate Student Stories

Connor Durfy

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Developing homogenous electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide conversion

Jacquelina DaSilva

Master of Science in Zoology (MSc)

Classroom discourse in a first-year multi-section biology course

Mitchell Demchuk

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Multiple resonance type thermally activated delayed fluorescence molecules for near ultraviolet and deep blue emission

Connor Thompson

Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)

Molecular and cellular studies of novel broad-spectrum natural product antivirals against viruses of pandemic concern

Cariad Knight

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Development of myelin-specific MRI contrast mechanisms using 31-phosphorous

Oliver Tong

Master of Science in Physics (MSc)

Analytical approaches to electron-phonon interaction

Johnathan Wong

Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)

Efficient Algorithms in Genomics

Eric Lee

Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)

Computational approaches for exploring the spatial dynamics of the cellular ecosystem
All Student Stories

Alumni on Success

Bruce MacKay

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) [2004]

Job Title
Principal Chemist and Client Support Manager

Employer
Schlumberger Technology Corporation

Clement Cheung

Master of Science in Chemistry (MSc) [2014]

Job Title
Chemical Operation Technologist

Employer
Phyton Biotech LLC

Kevin Shopsowitz

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) [2012]

Job Title
Medical student

Employer
University of British Columbia

Peter Frischmann

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) [2010]

Job Title
Co-Founder & CTO

Employer
Sepion Technologies

Chang Liu

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) [2013]

Job Title
Research Scientist

Employer
SCIEX

Ryan Philippe

Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) [2008]

Job Title
Director of R&D

Employer
Manus Biosynthesis

Barry Po

Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) [2005]

Job Title
Senior Director, Product & Business Development

Employer
NGRAIN

Jennifer Geddes-McAlister

Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)

Job Title
Humboldt Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Employer
Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry
All Alumni 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.

 

Comparative effectiveness of methadone take-home dose initiation in British Columbia, Canada: protocol for a population-based retrospective cohort study using target trial guidelines
Publication: BMJ open
UBC Author(s): Paul Gustafson (Statistics / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 15
Page Range: e095198
Publication Date: 5 March 2025

View Publication
Visualizing the Cellular and Subcellular Distribution of Fms-like Tyrosine Kinase 3 (Flt3) and Other Neuronal Proteins Using Alkaline Phosphatase (AP) Immunolabeling
Publication: International Journal of Molecular Sciences
UBC Author(s): Xin Tang (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 16616596
Volume: 26
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Identification of intratumoral bacteria that enhance breast tumor metastasis
Publication: mBio
UBC Author(s): B Brett Finlay (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 21612129
Volume: 16
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
The ineffectiveness of current environmental and fire policies in the world’s largest wetland
Publication: Environmental Research Letters
UBC Author(s): Mark Johnson (Institute for Resources,Environment & Sustainability / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 20
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication
Early spring population dynamics of Salpa thompsoni linked to physical oceanography in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean
Publication: Polar Biology
UBC Author(s): Yevhenii Pakhomov (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 07224060
Volume: 48
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
tp53 R217H and R242H mutant zebrafish exhibit dysfunctional p53 hallmarks and recapitulate Li-Fraumeni syndrome phenotypes
Publication: Biochimica et Biophysica Acta - Molecular Basis of Disease
UBC Author(s): Martin Hirst (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09254439
Volume: 1871
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
An over complete deep learning method for inverse problems
Publication: Foundations of Data Science
UBC Author(s): Eldad Haber (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 7
Page Range: 50-71
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Caps and wickets
Publication: Discrete Mathematics
UBC Author(s): Jozsef Solymosi (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0012365X
Volume: 348
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Origin and scarcity of breathing pyrochlore lattices in spinel oxides
Publication: Physical Review Materials
UBC Author(s): Joerg Rottler (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 9
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
PYLMT: a transient detection pipeline for the 4-m International Liquid Mirror Telescope
Publication: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
UBC Author(s): Paul Hickson (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00358711
Volume: 538
Page Range: 133-152
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication
The ALPHA-2 apparatus - facilitating experimentation with trapped antihydrogen
Publication: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
UBC Author(s): Takamasa Momose (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01689002
Volume: 1072
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Morphology and Molecular Phylogeny of Endosymbiotic Ciliates (Peritrichia, Mobilida) of Marine Invertebrates with Descriptions of Two Novel Species Urceolaria clepsydra n. sp. and Urceolaria bratalia n. sp
Publication: The Journal of eukaryotic microbiology
UBC Author(s): Brian Leander (Botany / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 72
Page Range: e70003
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication
MacArthur's Consumer-Resource Model: A Rosetta Stone for Competitive Interactions
Publication: The American naturalist
UBC Author(s): Rachel Germain (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 205
Page Range: 306-326
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication
Demystifying Fundamental Theories in Ecology
Publication: The American naturalist
UBC Author(s): Rachel Germain (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 205
Page Range: 280-284
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication
Early-life gut inflammation drives sex-dependent shifts in the microbiome-endocrine-brain axis
Publication: Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
UBC Author(s): Carolina Tropini (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 08891591
Volume: 125
Page Range: 117-139
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Triangulating habitat suitability for the locally extirpated California grizzly bear
Publication: Biological Conservation
UBC Author(s): Kaitlyn Gaynor (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00063207
Volume: 303
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
The Geography of Negative Curves
Publication: Michigan Mathematical Journal
UBC Author(s): Kalle Karu (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00262285
Volume: 75
Page Range: 89-118
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Interplay of Seasonal Hydrology and Landscape Topography Drives Black Carbon Export in the Fraser River
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences
UBC Author(s): Brian Hunt (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 21698953
Volume: 130
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Global and Regional Marine Ecosystem Models Reveal Key Uncertainties in Climate Change Projections
Publication: Earth's Future
UBC Author(s): Villy Christensen (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 13
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Buoyancy Regulation in Insects
Publication: Physiology (Bethesda, Md.)
UBC Author(s): Philip Matthews (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 40
Page Range: 0
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication
Decrypting the Invasion of Non-native Cattails (Typha spp.) in the Fraser River Estuary, British Columbia, Using Morphological and Microsatellite Analyses
Publication: Estuaries and Coasts
UBC Author(s): Quentin Charles Cronk (Botany / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15592723
Volume: 48
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
Toward a More Dynamic Metabolic Theory of Ecology to Predict Climate Change Effects on Biological Systems
Publication: The American naturalist
UBC Author(s): Mary O'Connor (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 205
Page Range: 285-305
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication
Temperature governs the relative contributions of cuticle and stomata to leaf minimum conductance
Publication: New Phytologist
UBC Author(s): Sean Michaletz (Botany / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0028646X
Volume: 245
Page Range: 1911-1923
Publication Date: March 2025

View Publication
IXPE observation of the low-synchrotron peaked blazar S4 0954+65 during an optical-X-ray flare
Publication: Astronomy and Astrophysics
UBC Author(s): Jeremy Heyl (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00046361
Volume: 695
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication
Using a Longformer Large Language Model for Segmenting Unstructured Cancer Pathology Reports
Publication: JCO clinical cancer informatics
UBC Author(s): Raymond Tak-Yan Ng (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 9
Page Range: e2400143
Publication Date: 1 March 2025

View Publication

Pages

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
2024 Dr. Ruder examined the conditions under which novel agricultural technologies can support transitions to more just and sustainable food systems in Canada. Her research offered new ways to evaluate impacts of technologies, made policy recommendations, and informed a toolkit of public scholarship resources for governing data and technology. Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (PhD)
2024 Dr. Moerhuis investigated the timescales of closed-system crystallization of basaltic magmas within the Earth's crust using the 56 million-year-old Skaergaard intrusion in East Greenland as a natural laboratory, contributing to a better understanding of widespread basaltic magmatism in the North Atlantic at a time of significant global warming. Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD)
2024 Dr. Li developed computational tools to discover and design novel antimicrobial peptides using machine learning techniques. His research provides high-throughput solutions for the development of novel peptide-based therapeutics to combat the escalating threat of multidrug-resistant bacteria. Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Zhang developed statistical methods to uncover hidden patterns in biological data. His research helped to unravel the underlying mechanism of complex diseases. In a study of pancreatic cancer, his method revealed seven gene programs related to cancer progression, which can aid researchers to develop more effective treatment strategies. Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Oliveira studied a new class of surfaces of interest to researchers in different areas of mathematics and provided many previously unknown examples. His research contributes to an understanding of the deeper relationships between seemingly separate subjects. Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Sample developed methods to improve salivary gland dose constraints during radiotherapy. This included the development of medical image deblurring techniques, tools for locating salivary glands on CT images, dose response analyses, and tools for treatment planning with modernized dose constraints. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Reid investigated topics in numerical relativity including the critical collapse of the Maxwell field and further developments of the Z4 formulation. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Koniar developed and validated novel methods for assessing the in vivo biodistribution and dosimetry of actinium radiopharmaceuticals for targeted alpha therapy. Her research contributions will assist in the optimization of theranostic agents to deliver personalized cancer care in patients with widespread metastatic disease. Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Physics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Tian studied how plants transduce immune signals from a major type of immune receptors. He revealed and characterized several essential proteins that regulate the immune pathway. This new knowledge has the potential to be applied to engineering resistant crop cultivars against a broad-spectrum of pathogens. Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)
2024 Dr. Su studied 3D computer vision for human digitalization, which converts real-world images and videos into 3D animatable avatars. His methods simplify complicated motion capture pipelines, showing a promising way for 3D avatar creations from everyday devices. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)

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