Faculty of Science

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.

Faculty Website

Fact Sheet

Mission

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

678

Master's Students

(2023)
1038

Doctoral Students

(2023)
435

Graduate Degrees Awarded

(2022)
428

Full-Time Faculty

(2023)
111.3

million in Research Awards

(2022/2023)

Research Centres

Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology

Computational Sciences and Mathematics

Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

Geophysical Inversion Facility
Lithoprobe: Canada's National Geoscience Project
Mineral Deposit Research Unit
Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research
Seismic Laboratory for Imaging and Modeling

Genomics and Biological Sciences

Centre for High-Throughput Biology
Geomatics for Informed Decisions Network
Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics
Michael Smith Laboratories

Human-Computer Interaction

Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems
Vancouver Institute for Visual Analytics

Life Sciences

Chemistry and Materials Science

Physics

Sustainability

Research Facilities

Designed to inspire collaboration and creativity across disciplines, the new 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 updated 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 new 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
McAllister, Murdoch	Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries	Statistical methods for fisheries risk assessment, estimation, decision analysis and management strategy evaluation
McDonald, Daniel	Department of Statistics	High dimensional data analysis; Computational methods in statistics; Statistical theory and modeling; Machine learning; Epidemiology (except nutritional and veterinary epidemiology); Methods and models for epidemiological forecasting; Estimation and quantification of prediction risk; Evaluating the predictive abilities of complex dependent data; Application of statistical learning techniques to time series prediction problems; Investigations of cross-validation and the bootstrap for risk estimation
McDougall, Scott	Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences	Other earth and related environmental sciences, n.e.c.; Geotechnical engineering; Debris flows / floods; Geohazards; Landslide-generated waves; Landslides; Natural and man-made geological hazards; Rock avalanches; Shoreline erosion; Tailings dam breaches
McGrenere, Joanna	Department of Computer Science	Computer and information sciences; computer science; computer supported cooperative work (CSCW); human-computer interaction; interactive technologies for older users and people with cognitive disorders; personalized user interfaces; universal usability
McIver, Jess	Department of Physics & Astronomy	General relativity and gravitational waves in astronomical and space sciences; Gravitational wave astrophysics; Multi-messenger astronomy; Characterization of large-scale physics instrumentation; data science
McKenna, Janis	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Physical sciences
Mehrkhodavandi, Parisa	Department of Chemistry	Chemical sciences; Inorganic and Organometallic Compounds; Polymers; Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis; Bio-based polymers; Bioproducts; catalysis; Green Chemistry; Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry; Polymer Chemistry and Characterization
Mehta, Aastha	Department of Computer Science	Networking, Security & Privacy, Systems security, Data privacy, Operating systems, Distributed systems
Michal, Carl	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Soft condensed matter; Development and applications of spectroscopic and structural techniques; Solid-state NMR; NMR and MRI of brain tissue; NMR methods and instrumentation; Biological and functional materials
Michaletz, Sean	Department of Botany	Plant physiological ecology; Plant biology; Surface processes; Natural hazards; Ecophysiology; Ecosystem ecology; climate change; macroecology; Geophysics; Scaling; Fire
Miller, Freda	Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Medical Genetics
Milner, Valery	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics; Ultrafast Quantum Coherent Control; Ultrafast Spectroscopy
Mitchell, Ian	Department of Computer Science	safety critical systems, assistive technology (mobility), robotics, scientific computing, cyber-physical systems, Mathematical software, computational science and engineering, hybrid and cyber-physical systems, verification and validation, reproducible research, level set methods, robotic path, planning
Mizumoto, Kota	Department of Zoology	Cell and Developmental Biology
Mohn, William	Department of Microbiology & Immunology	pollutant biodegradation, pollutant bioremediation, biological treatment of forest industry effluents and wastes, microbial ecology, environmental biotechnology, forest soil microbial ecology, tuberculosis, microbial genomics, Microbial ecology
Momose, Takamasa	Department of Chemistry	Spectroscopy, Chemical physics
Munzner, Tamara	Department of Computer Science	Human-centered computing; visualization; information visualization; visual analytics; data science
Murphy, Michael	Department of Microbiology & Immunology	Bacteriology; Enzymes (including kinetics and mechanisms, and biocatalyst); Alternatives to antibiotics; Bacterial pathogenesis; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Functional and Structural Proteomics; Microbial metal metabolism
Murphy, Gail	Department of Computer Science	Programming languages and software engineering; Software Development; knowledge worker productivity; software design; software engineering; software evolution
Murugan, Mathav	Department of Mathematics	Mathematics and statistics; boundary theory; Metric geometry; potential theory; probability theory and analysis; quasiconformal mappings; relationship between behavior of Markov processes and the geometry of the underlying state space; Sandpile models
Ng, Raymond Tak-yan	Department of Computer Science	Data mining and analysis, health informatics, text summarization, text mining
Nichols, Eva	Department of Chemistry	Inorganic catalysis and reaction mechanisms; carbon dioxide reduction; electrocatalysis; bioinspired catalyst designs; molecularly-modified materials; molecular mechanisms; self-assembled monolayers; operando spectroscopy
Nolde, Natalia	Department of Statistics	Statistics; Statistics and Probabilities; Applications in finance, insurance, geosciences; Multivariate extreme value theory; Risk assessment
O'Connor, Mary	Department of Zoology	climate change, ocean, seafood, seagrass, eelgrass, invertebrate, ecology, environment,
Oberg, Gunilla	Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability	History and philosophy of science (including non-historical philosophy of science); Other earth and related environmental sciences, n.e.c.; Indigenous peoples environmental knowledge; All other social sciences, n.e.c.; Science and knowledge production; Scientific controversies surrounding the evaluation of chemical risk (epistemic and ontological); Indigenous data justice as related to chemicals regulation & management; Social and cultural factors of chemicals regulation & management; Vocabulary, Knowledge, Significance and Thought Building; environmental health; The challenge of teaching science as a process and not a deliverer of irrefutable facts; The role of deliberation in science

Graduate Student Stories

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

Trevor Bolduc

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Development of new methods and applications of sulfur-fluoride reagents for chemical synthesis

Natasha Klasios

Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)

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

Andrew Kukor

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Leveraging automation and real-time analytics to investigate physical and chemical processes

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

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.

Measuring Oviposition Preference in Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes

Publication: Cold Spring Harbor protocols
UBC Author(s): Benjamin Matthews (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2024
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Evaluating Egg-Laying Preference of Individual Aedes aegypti Mosquitoes

Publication: Cold Spring Harbor protocols
UBC Author(s): Benjamin Matthews (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2024
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Results and Limits of Time-Division Multiplexing for the BICEP Array High-Frequency Receivers

Publication: Journal of Low Temperature Physics
UBC Author(s): Mark Halpern (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00222291
Volume: 216
Page Range: 29-38
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Dissection and Immunolabeling of the Central and Peripheral Nervous System of Drosophila Larvae

Publication: Cold Spring Harbor protocols
UBC Author(s): Vanessa Auld (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2024
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Whole-Larva Cryosectioning and Immunolabeling of Drosophila Larvae

Publication: Cold Spring Harbor protocols
UBC Author(s): Vanessa Auld (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2024
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Cell Biology Techniques for Studying Drosophila Peripheral Glial Cells

Publication: Cold Spring Harbor protocols
UBC Author(s): Vanessa Auld (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2024
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Automated Egg-Counting Approaches for Aedes aegypti Oviposition Experiments

Publication: Cold Spring Harbor protocols
UBC Author(s): Benjamin Matthews (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2024
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

PDRs4All VIII. Mid-infrared emission line inventory of the Orion Bar

Publication: Astronomy and Astrophysics
UBC Author(s): Ilsa Cooke (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00046361
Volume: 687
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Ecosystem-wide responses to fire and large mammal herbivores in an African savanna

Publication: Biotropica
UBC Author(s): Kaitlyn Gaynor (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00063606
Volume: 56
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Rational self-maps with a regular iterate on a semiabelian variety

Publication: Journal of Number Theory
UBC Author(s): Zinovy Reichstein (Mathematics / Faculty of Science), Dragos Ghioca (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0022314X
Volume: 260
Page Range: 103-119
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Identifying Potential Critical Angel Shark Areas in Türkiye, Eastern Mediterranean Based on New Records of Squatina spp. Identified through Fisher Engagement

Publication: Fishes
UBC Author(s): Daniel Pauly (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 9
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

LAFL Factors in Seed Development and Phase Transitions

Publication: Annual review of plant biology
UBC Author(s): Liang Song (Botany / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 75
Page Range: 459-488
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Combination of searches for pair-produced leptoquarks 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: 854
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Search for pair-production of vector-like quarks in lepton+jets final states containing at least one b-tagged jet using the Run 2 data from the ATLAS experiment

Single-fly genome assemblies fill major phylogenomic gaps across the Drosophilidae Tree of Life

Publication: PLoS Biology
UBC Author(s): Kevin Wei (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15449173
Volume: 22
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Measurement of vector boson production cross sections and their ratios using pp collisions at s=13.6 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Publication: Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
UBC Author(s): Alison Lister (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 03702693
Volume: 854
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Measurement of t-channel single-top-quark production in pp collisions at s=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

TESS Hunt for Young and Maturing Exoplanets (THYME). X. A Two-planet System in the 210 Myr MELANGE-5 Association

Publication: Astronomical Journal
UBC Author(s): Michelle Kunimoto (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00046256
Volume: 168
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Updating the First CHIME/FRB Catalog of Fast Radio Bursts with Baseband Data

Publication: Astrophysical Journal
UBC Author(s): Ingrid Stairs (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0004637X
Volume: 969
Publication Date: 1 July 2024

View Publication

Inclusive and differential cross-section measurements of tt¯Z production in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector, including EFT and spin-correlation interpretations

Publication: Journal of High Energy Physics
UBC Author(s): Alison Lister (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2024
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Highly oxygenated cyclohexenes from Uvaria dac Pierre ex Finet & Gagnep. and their α-glucosidase inhibitory activity

Publication: Fitoterapia
UBC Author(s): Raymond Andersen (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0367326X
Volume: 176
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Investigation of heterotrophs reveals new insights in dinoflagellate evolution

Publication: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution
UBC Author(s): Brian Leander (Botany / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10557903
Volume: 196
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

Measurement of the Z boson invisible width at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Flow past a random array of statistically homogeneously distributed stationary Platonic polyhedrons: Data analysis, Probability maps and Deep Learning models

Publication: International Journal of Multiphase Flow
UBC Author(s): Anthony Wachs (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 03019322
Volume: 177
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

A Classification of G-Charge Thouless Pumps in 1D Invertible States

Publication: Communications in Mathematical Physics
UBC Author(s): Sven Bachmann (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00103616
Volume: 405
Publication Date: July 2024

View Publication

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. Dostert studied communities of the highly antibiotic resistant bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa. She identified genes mediating community growth in diverse environments. Her research demonstrated the strong influence of the growth environment on the entire gene network and provided interesting gene candidates for the design of novel drugs.	Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)
2023	Dr. Xiao made notable contributions in the field of text summarization through her innovative application of machine learning techniques. She enhanced AI summarizers with discourse information. Her impactful research is a valuable asset in our data-driven and time-constrained society, offering an effective solution for managing information overload.	Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2023	Dr. Emry examined how the distribution of marine species across environmental gradients mediates response to climate change. She found that species often respond to abiotic stress in ways that correlate with their environmental conditions, and that the indirect effects of this stress can have significant impacts on the structure of communities.	Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)
2023	Dr. Haenel studied the signatures of the Higgs mode in exotic superconducting materials. The Higgs mode emerges as a quasiparticle in the framework of superconductors. It is the condensed-matter-analogue of the Higgs Boson in the the Standard Model. Research on these collective excitations in superconductors can lead to a better understanding of the mechanism of high temperature superconductors.	Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)
2023	Dr. Luo developed engineering approaches to apply a protective polymer coating onto the blood vessels of organs that interact with the immune system to improve organ quality and transplantation success. The protective immunomodulatory coating can be adapted for other immune functions, opening up possibilities for the development of novel therapies.	Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2023	Dr. Marroquin Madera studied the initial density dependence of plasma formation and properties of a Nitric Oxide molecular Rydberg gas, along with the effects of applying radiofrequencies and electric fields.	Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2023	Dr. Clayworth studied how glial cells in the nervous system wrap and protect neurons. She found a novel role for the dystroglycan protein, which is disrupted in muscular dystrophy, in glial wrapping of neurons. Her work improves our understanding of the mechanisms of glial protection of neurons and their potential involvement in muscular dystrophy.	Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)
2023	Dr. Morales Duran found that acidic environmental pH decreased the activity of antibiotics against the CF pathogen B. cenocepacia, and induced changes in the bacterium that are associated with host colonization and pathogenicity.	Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)
2023	Dr. Darwish developed, characterized, and applied brightly light-emitting, nanometer-sized particles toward simple and cost-effective detection and analysis of targeted cell types and molecules. Her research contributes new scientific knowledge, methods, and technologies to make healthcare more accessible, efficient, and inclusive.	Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2023	Dr. Branch examined the impact that severe drought has on the plant species, scarlet monkeyflower. Her research found that different populations evolve in different ways but maintain growth and improve water efficiency. Her work highlights that stress can be inherited across generations.	Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)