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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
Dierker, Steve Department of Physics & Astronomy Physical sciences; Collective dynamics of condensed matter systems; Dependence on reduced dimensionality, strong interactions, disorder, and mesoscale structure
Ding, Jiarui Department of Computer Science Bioinformatics; Basic medicine and life sciences; Computational Biology; Machine Learning; Probabilistic Deep Learning; single-cell genomics; visualization; Cancer biology; Computational Immunology; Food Allergy; neuroscience
Doebeli, Michael Walter Department of Mathematics, Department of Zoology Mathematical ecology and evolution, evolution of diversity, adaptive speciation, evolution of cooperation, game theory, experimental evolution in microorganisms
Domeier, Phillip Department of Microbiology & Immunology Host-pathogen; biodiversity; Rapid evolution infection; Immunity; Inflammation Viruses
Eberhardt, Erik Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Geotechnical engineering; Mining engineering; Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering; Deep Underground Excavations; Rock Slope Engineering; Block Cave Mining
Eltis, Lindsay Department of Microbiology & Immunology Biochemistry; Genomics; Immunology; Microbiology; Bacterial catabolism of steroids and lignin; biocatalyst development; Enzymes and Proteins; Metabolism (Living Organisms); Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Evans, William Department of Computer Science Computer and information sciences; Algorithms; theoretical computer science; Computer Sciences and Mathematical Tools; computational geometry; graph drawing; program compression
Fast, Naomi Department of Botany Genomics, single-celled organisms
Feeley, Michael Department of Computer Science Distributed systems, operating systems, workstation and pc clusters
Fernandez, Rachel Department of Microbiology & Immunology Bordetella pertusis, whooping cough, lipopolysaccharide
Finlay, B Brett Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Infectious agents, bacteria, microbial infections and how humans react to it
Fischer, Monika Department of Botany, Department of Forest & Conservation Sciences Mycology; mycology; fire-adapted fungi; fungal community ecology; fungal genetics & development; fungal metabolism
Folk, Joshua Department of Physics & Astronomy Physical sciences; 2D materials and Vanderwaals heterostructures; Quantum electronics; Thermodynamics of quantum systems; Strongly correlated phenomena; Topological phenomena; Quantum transport
Franz, Marcel Department of Physics & Astronomy Condensed matter theory
Fraser, Ailana Department of Mathematics Differential Geometry, Geometric Analysis
Friedlander, Michael Department of Computer Science, Department of Mathematics numerical optimization, numerical linear algebra, scientific computing, Scientific computing
Friedman, Joel Department of Computer Science Computer and information sciences; Algebraic Graph Theory; Combinatorics; Computer Science Theory
Gantois, Joséphine Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability Environment and natural resources economics; Ecological applications; Sociology; Human Dimensions of Biodiversity Conservation; environmental economics; Applied Ecology; Rural Sociology; Causal inference; Applied Deep Learning
Gao, Lucy Department of Statistics Statistics; Selective Inference; Inference x Unsupervised Learning; Statistics x Optimization
Garcia, Ronald Department of Computer Science Programming languages; programming languages
Gates, Derek Department of Chemistry Inorganic chemistry, materials science, polymer chemistry, catalysis
Gay, Colin Department of Physics & Astronomy Experimental subatomic physics, Beyond Standard Model physics, Extra dimensions
Gaynor, Kaitlyn Department of Zoology, Department of Botany behavioral responses of animals to human presence; effects of anthropogenic disturbance on predator-prey and other species interactions; socio-ecological dynamics of conservation and coexistence
Genovese, Giuseppe Department of Mathematics
Germain, Rachel Department of Zoology Ecology; evolution

Pages

Graduate Student Stories

Nicole (Nikki) Kaechele

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

Reparations, compensation, and Indigenous governance: operationalizing reconciliation through theory and practice.

Manvi Bhalla

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

Co-Imagining Just Futures: Advancing Intersectional Environmental Justice in Canadian Environmental Health Policy-Making

Pardis Semnani

Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)

Causal Inference and Density Estimation

Michael Sekatchev

Master of Science in Physics (MSc)

Axion quark nuggets versus excess galactic emissions

Jackson Moore

Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD)

Domestication and ecology of the model eukaryote Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Zana Mody

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

Counting blue carbon for coastal communities: understanding socio-ecological contexts of nature based climate solutions and mangrove restoration

Charlotte Milne

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

Finding best practices in Canadian flood mapping to decrease risk for all

Quanhan Xi

Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD)

Representing latent interventions in generative models
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.

 

Agricultural landscape genomics to increase crop resilience
Publication: Plant Communications
UBC Author(s): Loren Rieseberg (Botany / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 6
Publication Date: 10 February 2025

View Publication
Flowering time responses to warming drive reproductive fitness in a changing Arctic
Publication: Annals of botany
UBC Author(s): Amy Angert (Botany / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 135
Page Range: 255-268
Publication Date: 8 February 2025

View Publication
Smartphones as a platform for molecular analysis: concepts, methods, devices and future potential
Publication: Lab on a Chip
UBC Author(s): Walter Algar (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 14730197
Volume: 25
Page Range: 884-955
Publication Date: 7 February 2025

View Publication
Fungal impacts on Earth’s ecosystems
Publication: Nature
UBC Author(s): James Kronstad (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00280836
Volume: 638
Page Range: 49-57
Publication Date: 6 February 2025

View Publication
Alphaviral backbone of self-amplifying RNA enhances protein expression and immunogenicity against SARS-CoV-2 antigen
Publication: Molecular Therapy
UBC Author(s): Anna Blakney (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15250016
Volume: 33
Page Range: 514-528
Publication Date: 5 February 2025

View Publication
Evolution: Untangling the mix of plastid endosymbiosis events
Publication: Current Biology
UBC Author(s): Patrick John Keeling (Botany / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09609822
Volume: 35
Page Range: R94-R96
Publication Date: 3 February 2025

View Publication
Eight New Candidate Multiplanet Systems among TESS Objects of Interest
Publication: Astronomical Journal
UBC Author(s): Michelle Kunimoto (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00046256
Volume: 169
Publication Date: 3 February 2025

View Publication
Preserved Serotonin Transporter Availability in Parkinson Disease Measured with Either [<sup>11</sup>C]MADAM or [<sup>11</sup>C]DASB: A Study Including 2 Separate Cohorts of Nondepressed Patients
Publication: Journal of nuclear medicine : official publication, Society of Nuclear Medicine
UBC Author(s): Vesna Sossi (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 66
Page Range: 309-314
Publication Date: 3 February 2025

View Publication
Population genomics reveals strong impacts of genetic drift without purging and guides conservation of bull and giant kelp
Publication: Current Biology
UBC Author(s): Loren Rieseberg (Botany / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09609822
Volume: 35
Page Range: 688-698.e8
Publication Date: 3 February 2025

View Publication
Insect chemosensation: A grapefruit squeeze on mosquito-borne disease
Publication: Current Biology
UBC Author(s): Benjamin Matthews (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09609822
Volume: 35
Page Range: R96-R98
Publication Date: 3 February 2025

View Publication
Discovery and Characterization of an Eccentric, Warm Saturn Transiting the Solar Analog TOI-4994
Publication: Astronomical Journal
UBC Author(s): Michelle Kunimoto (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00046256
Volume: 169
Publication Date: 3 February 2025

View Publication
Constraint on the total width of the Higgs boson from Higgs boson and four-top-quark measurements in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
Publication: Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
UBC Author(s): Colin Gay (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 03702693
Volume: 861
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
A potential photo-protective, antioxidant function for DMSO in marine phytoplankton
Publication: PLoS ONE
UBC Author(s): Philippe Tortell (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 20
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
Facile green treatment of mixed cellulose ester membranes by deep eutectic solvent to enhance dye removal and determination
Publication: International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
UBC Author(s): David Chen (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01418130
Volume: 291
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
Parity-violating marginal deformation of the 3D Gross-Neveu-Thirring model
Publication: Physical Review D
UBC Author(s): Gordon Walter Semenoff (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 24700010
Volume: 111
Publication Date: 1 February 2025

View Publication
Metabolic health across the ages: how microbiota members support our well-being: Gut microbiota in 2024
Publication: Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology
UBC Author(s): Carolina Tropini (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 17595045
Volume: 22
Page Range: 84-85
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
Chalcones, flavonoids, and aristolactam alkaloids from Friesodielsia kingii and their biological activities
Publication: Phytochemistry Letters
UBC Author(s): Raymond Andersen (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 18743900
Volume: 65
Page Range: 5-9
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
Impact of methodological choices on the analysis of code metrics and maintenance
Publication: Journal of Systems and Software
UBC Author(s): Reid Holmes (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01641212
Volume: 220
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
Pathways for converting zooplankton traits to ecological insights are paved with findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) data practices
Publication: ICES Journal of Marine Science
UBC Author(s): Yevhenii Pakhomov (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science), Brian Hunt (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10543139
Volume: 82
Publication Date: 1 February 2025

View Publication
JWST photometry and astrometry of 47 Tucanæ: Discontinuity in the stellar sequence at the star-brown dwarf transition
Publication: Astronomy and Astrophysics
UBC Author(s): Jeremy Heyl (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00046361
Volume: 694
Publication Date: 1 February 2025

View Publication
Are dispersal and dormancy alternative strategies for overcoming environmental variability?
Publication: Ecology
UBC Author(s): Rachel Germain (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00129658
Volume: 106
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
On the Distance Sets Spanned by Sets of Dimension d/2 in
Publication: Geometric and Functional Analysis
UBC Author(s): Pablo Shmerkin (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 1016443X
Volume: 35
Page Range: 283-358
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
Observation of the decay B0 →j/ψω at Belle II
Publication: Physical Review D
UBC Author(s): Janis McKenna (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 24700010
Volume: 111
Publication Date: 1 February 2025

View Publication
Precision spectroscopy of the hyperfine components of the 1S–2S transition in antihydrogen
Publication: Nature Physics
UBC Author(s): Takamasa Momose (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 17452473
Volume: 21
Page Range: 201-207
Publication Date: February 2025

View Publication
Warming During Different Life Stages has Distinct Impacts on Host Resistance Ecology and Evolution
Publication: Ecology Letters
UBC Author(s): Kayla King (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 1461023X
Volume: 28
Publication Date: February 2025

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
2024 Dr. Allanach focused on determining how viral infection influences autoimmune disease in a newly developed humanized mouse model of multiple sclerosis.She observed that Epstein-Barr virus worsened disease by altering the balance of beneficial and detrimental immune subsets in the brain. These findings have implications for how infections should be targeted in diseases like MS. Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)
2024 Dr. Gheorghiu has made a contribution to algebra. One of the simplest algebraic structures are groups. Cohomology is an algebraic tool that can discern geometric objects by looking at their "holes". Then group cohomology is a tool that can discern different groups. Dr. Gheorghiu has developed a generalization of a specific form of group cohomology. Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Jawahar explored how deep learning models in natural language processing could be more efficient. He introduced new, cutting-edge methods using neural architecture search, improving efficiency and performance tradeoffs in tasks like autocomplete, machine translation, and language modeling. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 Dr. Hamidi studied elliptic curves over quadratic imaginary fields. Using a new and robust technique, Dr. Hamidi proved significant results about the vanishing and bounding of certain invariants. His results could have applications in number theory, cryptography, and other areas of mathematics. Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Pata is an oceanographer and studied the physical and ecological mechanisms that affect the distribution of zooplankton communities in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. He developed a global database of zooplankton species traits and used that in improving the estimates of the role of zooplankton in ecosystem functioning. Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography (PhD)
2024 Dr. Noonan developed various tools and methodologies enabling the high-throughput testing and engineering of metabolisms in bacteria and microalgae, with the objective of applying microbial metabolisms to support sustainable industrial practices. Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD)
2024 Dr. Maschmeyer-Tombs examined the use of benchtop nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy as a tool to monitor chemical reactions. He evaluated the use of different sampling methods and applied his findings to study a variety of chemical reactions, demonstrating how similar approaches can be used in industrial pharmaceutical research. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2024 Dr. Montante studied the application of Artificial Intelligence for the advancement of biomedical research. Manual analysis of data extracted from blood samples is becoming increasingly complex. He developed a new Artificial Intelligence algorithm that is simple to use, accurate and able to analyze complex biomedical data in a few minutes. Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Zhang developed a flexible statistical model with which the relations among multiple time series variables can be considered after modeling each individual time series. It is applied to macroeconomic variables with changing business cycles. Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Lerner investigated Chinook salmon marine ecology. He used lipid analysis to determine Chinook fat content, and chemical tracers to examine sub-adult Chinook marine distribution, foraging, and food webs. This research improves our understanding of the marine life stage of this valuable species and can enhance conservation and management objectives. Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography (PhD)

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