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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
Li, Yue-Xian Department of Mathematics Calcium signalling in neuroendocrine cells Fertilization calcium waves in oocytes
Li, Hongbin Department of Chemistry Biophysical chemistry, biomaterials, single molecule studies, biological, atomic force, polymer chemistry
Li, Xin Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Botany Molecules in plants, plants defence against pathogen infection, plant genes
Lister, Alison Department of Physics & Astronomy Particle physics, experimental; Large Hadron Collier (LHC); ATLAS experiment; Search for physics beyond the standard model; top quarks; dark matter; Machine Learning; Long-lived particles
Loewen, Philip Department of Mathematics Mathematical optimization; Calculus of Variations; Optimal Control; optimization; Machine Learning
Lukes, Laura Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Earth and related environmental sciences; Psychology and cognitive sciences; Education; Geoscience Education Research (Discipline-Based Education Research); Self-regulated Learning; field-based experiential learning; learning in informal settings (e.g., museums, parks, science centers); crowdsourced and citizen science; teacher beliefs; motivation, emotion, and beliefs in learning; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in STEM; learning engineering
MacDonald, Colin Department of Mathematics List of publications; The Closest Point Method: a new method for PDEs on surfaces; Time-stepping for PDEs: constructing Runge-Kutta methods, strong-stability-preserving methods (visit the SSP Site); WENO spatial discretizations; The Predicted Sequential Regularization Method; List of talks and presentations.
MacFarlane, Andrew Department of Chemistry Chemical physics, Electronic and magnetic properties of crystalline solids, especially strongly correlated materials such as the cuprate high temperature superconductors
MacLachlan, Mark Department of Chemistry Supramolecular inorganic chemistry; Inorganic materials; Supramolecular organic chemistry; Synthesis of materials; Functional materials in materials chemistry sciences; Supramolecular Chemistry; Nanomaterials; Biomaterials; Cellulose nanocrystals; Chitin; Materials Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry
MacLean, Karon Department of Computer Science Computer and information sciences; Information Systems; design of user interfaces; haptic interfaces; human-computer interaction; human-robot interaction
Madison, Kirk Department of Physics & Astronomy Condensed matter, atomic, molecular and optical physics
Madzwamuse, Anotida Department of Mathematics
Maldonado, Maite Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Phytoplankton Trace Metal Physiology
Man, Allison Department of Physics & Astronomy Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy; galaxy formation and evolution
Mank, Judith Department of Zoology evolution; How selection acts on males and females within a species; How the genome responds to contradictory selection to encode sexually dimorphic traits; Sex chromosomes; Gene regulation; Sexual conflict
Marcus, Brian Harry Department of Mathematics Coding and information theory, symbolic dynamics, ergodic theory and dynamical systems
Marshall, Katie Department of Zoology Animal physiology, environmental stress; Environmental Change; Marine biodiversity; Population Ecology; invertebrates and temperature adaptation
Martin, Gregory Department of Mathematics Number theory, Diophantine Approximation and Classical Analysis
Martone, Patrick Department of Botany Plant biology; Protist; Plants; Physiology; Taxonomy and Systematics; Ecology and Quality of the Environment; Evolution and Phylogenesis; Biomaterials; Solid Mechanics; Fluid mechanics; biomechanics; Ecology; evolution; Intertidal Zone; Macroalgae; Phycology
Marziali, Andre Department of Physics & Astronomy Teaching methods, pedagogy, Robotics in education, Nanotechnology, Engineering Physics, Genomics, Biophysics, Genomics Technologies
Matsuuchi, Linda Department of Zoology Intracellular signaling, signal transduction, receptor and membrane biology; Cell Biology; Immunology
Matthews, Philip Department of Zoology Animal physiology, respiration; Insect biology; Animal physiology, biophysics; Comparative biomechanics; Animal physiological ecology; Comparative Physiology; biomechanics; Insect physiology; Respiratory Physiology
Matthews, Benjamin Department of Zoology Genomics; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Zoology; Aedes aeygpti mosquitoes; Arboviral pathogens; Chikungunya; Comparative Physiology; Dengue fever; Genome of mosquitoes; Yellow fever; Zika
Mattison, Thomas Department of Physics & Astronomy Subatomic physics, Particle & Nuclear Physics, Applied Physics
Mayer, Ulrich Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Geology; groundwater contamination; groundwater remediation; hydrogeology; low-temperature geochemistry; mine waste management

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Graduate Student Stories

Prerna Gupta

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

Nuclear risk perception in India: risk in the context of political debates and economic insecurities

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

Imranul Laskar

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

Air Quality, Health, and Climate Impacts of Global Shipping

Antoine Belley

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Probing beyond standard model physics through ab initio calculations of exotic weak processes in atomic nuclei

Baraa Orabi

Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)

Design and complexity analysis of novel algorithms for annotation-independent detection of transcriptomic alternative splicing Isoforms using long-read sequencing
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.

 

Explicit and Near-Optimal Construction of t-Rankwise Independent Permutations
Publication: Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics, LIPIcs
UBC Author(s): Nicholas Harvey (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 18688969
Volume: 317
Publication Date: September 2024

View Publication
On odd-normal numbers
Publication: Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics
UBC Author(s): Malabika Pramanik (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00195588
Volume: 55
Page Range: 974-998
Publication Date: September 2024

View Publication
Trials and Tribulations in the Reanalysis of KELT-24 b: A Case Study for the Importance of Stellar Modeling
Publication: Astronomical Journal
UBC Author(s): Michelle Kunimoto (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00046256
Volume: 168
Publication Date: 1 September 2024

View Publication
Olivine Time-Capsules Constrain the Pre-Eruptive History of Holocene Basalts, Mount Meager Volcanic Complex, British Columbia, Canada
Publication: Journal of Petrology
UBC Author(s): James Kelly Russell (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00223530
Volume: 65
Publication Date: 1 September 2024

View Publication
David (Dave) John Randall (1938-2024), Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Fellow of the Brazilian Academy of Science
Publication: The Journal of experimental biology
UBC Author(s): Colin Brauner (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 227
Publication Date: 1 September 2024

View Publication
Spatiotemporal distribution of the non-indigenous peach blossom jellyfish Craspedacusta sowerbii in British Columbia, Canada
Publication: Canadian Journal of Zoology
UBC Author(s): Yevhenii Pakhomov (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00084301
Volume: 102
Page Range: 735-745
Publication Date: September 2024

View Publication
Simultaneous energy and mass calibration of large-radius jets with the ATLAS detector using a deep neural network
Publication: Machine Learning: Science and Technology
UBC Author(s): Colin Gay (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 5
Publication Date: 1 September 2024

View Publication
Observations of Low and Intermediate Spectral Peak Blazars with the Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer
Publication: Astrophysical Journal
UBC Author(s): Jeremy Heyl (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0004637X
Volume: 972
Publication Date: 1 September 2024

View Publication
Concyclic Intervals in the Plane
Publication: Discrete and Computational Geometry
UBC Author(s): Jozsef Solymosi (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01795376
Volume: 72
Page Range: 1010-1027
Publication Date: September 2024

View Publication
On the Structure of Pointsets with Many Collinear Triples
Publication: Discrete and Computational Geometry
UBC Author(s): Jozsef Solymosi (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01795376
Volume: 72
Page Range: 986-1009
Publication Date: September 2024

View Publication
ACM Profits Considered Harmful
Publication: Communications of the ACM
UBC Author(s): William Bowman (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00010782
Volume: 67
Page Range: 40-42
Publication Date: 1 September 2024

View Publication
Environmental impacts of genetically modified crops
Publication: Science (New York, N.Y.)
UBC Author(s): Joséphine Gantois (Institute for Resources,Environment & Sustainability / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 385
Page Range: eado9340
Publication Date: 30 August 2024

View Publication
Exploiting natural complexity for substrate controlled regioselectivity and stereoselectivity in tantalum catalysed hydroaminoalkylation
Publication: Green Chemistry
UBC Author(s): Laurel Schafer (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 14639262
Volume: 26
Page Range: 9729-9736
Publication Date: 30 August 2024

View Publication
The Mechanism of Heterogeneous Ice Nucleation by Fatty Alcohol Monolayers
Publication: Journal of Physical Chemistry A
UBC Author(s): Allan Bertram (Chemistry / Faculty of Science), Grenfell Patey (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10895639
Volume: 128
Page Range: 7214-7225
Publication Date: 29 August 2024

View Publication
Prokaryotic-virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes throughout the global oceans
Publication: Microbiome
UBC Author(s): Steven Hallam (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 12
Page Range: 159
Publication Date: 29 August 2024

View Publication
Siderophore Biosynthesis and Transport Systems in Model and Pathogenic Fungi
Publication: Journal of microbiology and biotechnology
UBC Author(s): James Kronstad (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 34
Page Range: 1551-1562
Publication Date: 28 August 2024

View Publication
Taste cells expressing Ionotropic Receptor 94e reciprocally impact feeding and egg laying in Drosophila
Publication: Cell Reports
UBC Author(s): Michael Gordon (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 26391856
Volume: 43
Publication Date: 27 August 2024

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An analysis of the interaction between surface and basal crevasses in ice shelves
Publication: Cryosphere
UBC Author(s): Anthony Peirce (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 19940416
Volume: 18
Page Range: 3841-3856
Publication Date: 27 August 2024

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Whole rock lithogeochemical analysis of the Mount Read Volcanics: a new tool for geochemical exploration
Publication: Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
UBC Author(s): Shaun Barker (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 14677873
Volume: 24
Publication Date: 26 August 2024

View Publication
Predicting Cascading Failures with a Hyperparametric Diffusion Model
Publication: Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining
UBC Author(s): Laks Lakshmanan (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 2154817X
Page Range: 3495-3506
Publication Date: 25 August 2024

View Publication
Introduction to Computational Organic Chemistry
Publication: Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry
UBC Author(s): Jolene Reid (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 14770520
Volume: 22
Page Range: 7072-7073
Publication Date: 23 August 2024

View Publication
Taking stock of global fisheries
Publication: Science (New York, N.Y.)
UBC Author(s): Daniel Pauly (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 385
Page Range: 824-825
Publication Date: 23 August 2024

View Publication
On the relationship between δO<inf>2</inf>/N<inf>2</inf> variability and ice sheet surface conditions in Antarctica
Publication: Cryosphere
UBC Author(s): Anais Orsi (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 19940416
Volume: 18
Page Range: 3741-3763
Publication Date: 22 August 2024

View Publication
The grasshopper genome reveals long-term gene content conservation of the X Chromosome and temporal variation in X Chromosome evolution
Publication: Genome research
UBC Author(s): Judith Mank (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 34
Page Range: 997-1007
Publication Date: 20 August 2024

View Publication
Low Mo mobility during the laterization of ultramafic bedrock: Evidence from the East Sulawesi Ophiolite, Indonesia
Publication: Chemical Geology
UBC Author(s): Sean Crowe (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00092541
Volume: 660
Publication Date: 20 August 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
2024 Dr. Suhail has made significant strides in computer vision by pioneering diverse methodologies that elevate semantic comprehension and geometric reasoning abilities within computer vision systems. His works have received nominations for Best Paper Awards, highlighting the substantial impact of his work in the field. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 The terrestrial plants possess a cuticle which comprises a mixture of ubiquitous waxes that have important physiological roles. Dr. Gozdzik investigated the cuticles of several plant species to infer biosynthetic mechanisms for non-ubiquitous specialty wax compounds which furthers the understanding of the roles and origins of those wax compounds. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2024 Dr. Banados Schwerter studied the formal requirements for detecting type inconsistencies in programming languages that combine static and dynamic type checking, and a novel reporting technique for these errors. His research will assist the design of new programming languages and help their future programmers to find and fix programming mistakes. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 Dr. Feng proposed an inexpensive method to reduce the amount of human labeling in the task of extracting relations from documents. He proposed a novel self-training method to improve the performance of text generation and relation extraction when few labeled data is used to train a machine learning model. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 Dr. He developed a self-supervised machine learning tool that minimizes the need for extensive human annotation, thereby alleviating the reliance on costly human labor during the machine learning development process. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2023 Dr. Huggins studied how microorganisms use nitrogen in low-oxygen marine waters. She found that, in some cases, nitrogen can be recycled faster than it is lost from the environment. Her work adds to our knowledge about the impacts of oxygen loss and climate change in the oceans. Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)
2023 Dr. Irwin studied how to use computers to solve noisy optimization problems, which are optimization problems where one cannot measure the quantity one wants to optimize exactly. He developed three new computer algorithms for solving noisy optimization problems, including an industrial problem encountered by makers of computer chips. Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Yin developed new methods to improve mass spectrometry based proteomic research. His work enabled more comprehensive and accurate measurement of proteins, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the state of biological systems studied. The methods he developed has potential future applications in advancing disease diagnosis and therapeutics discovery. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2023 Dr. Jones developed and implemented phylogenetic methods to estimate integration dates of HIV proviruses. His findings have provided a better understanding of within-host HIV dynamics and is beneficial for HIV cure research. Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)
2023 Quite surprisingly, some quantum systems can encode gravitational physics in a higher dimensional space. Dr. Waddell used this fact to study a key quantum system arising in string theory, to show that information about a black hole's contents is not destroyed when it evaporates, and to propose a quantum description of universes similar to our own. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

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