AI can tell if a patient battling cancer needs mental health support
Psychiatrists and computer scientists at UBC and BC Cancer have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that can accurately...
Learn MoreApplicants to master’s and doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
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.
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
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.
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.
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Science.
Year | Citation | Program |
---|---|---|
2017 | Dr. Prince studied the integration of language processing with visualization techniques in asynchronous conversations. Findings revealed that language processing identifies topics and opinions, while visualization techniques provide overviews of the data. This work highlights the benefits of adding visualization techniques in supporting web-based conversations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
2017 | Dr. Tanimura revealed missing gas and plasma in the universe, which was expected to exist, but not yet observed. His findings help us to understand the entire structure of the universe as well as the evolution of the universe along the time continuum. | Doctor of Philosophy in Astronomy (PhD) |
2017 | Tumors, within the endocrine system, are difficult to detect as well as treat. Dr. Blanc developed a novel method producing unique bioactive peptides. This process paves the way for improved therapeutics and imaging agents, particularly against aggressive and lethal cancers. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2017 | Dr. Roxanas studied evolution Partial Differential Equations, focusing on the Nonlinear Heat Equation and the Harmonic Map Heat Flow. He investigated conditions under which the solutions exist for all times, and studied their asymptotic behaviour. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
2017 | Focussing on seahorses, Dr. Kuo studied how fisheries and trade of marine fishes changed with international export regulations. Her work helps improve the way we quantify seahorse catch and trade, and helps identify the countries that need more conservation efforts. Her study has implications for the management of sustainable wildlife trade. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2017 | Dr. Caudillo-Mata developed mathematical solutions to reduce the computing cost of simulating geophysical electromagnetic responses. Such simulations are used to detect mineral, groundwater and hydrocarbon deposits. This study will help create more powerful computer modelling tools that enable geoscientists to tackle larger and more complex problems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD) |
2017 | Dr. Tavassoli developed novel data mining methods to study a range of complex materials, from pulp samples to cancer cells. This work has applications in many industries, particularly benefiting pulp makers as the unique combination of techniques offers insights to improve the accuracy of predicting product properties of the variety of raw materials. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2017 | Dr. Sabouri's doctoral studies focused on the development and evaluation of a new magnetic resonance imaging technique for diagnosis of prostate cancer. The proposed technique provides higher accuracy than the conventional clinical protocols, and can be incorporated into clinical settings to improve the screening and monitoring of prostate cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2017 | Dr. Sharpe used social spider populations to demonstrate that over-sharing of food could result in population extinction. However, using a computer simulation, she showed that rare but random events could increase food available to large colonies, allowing individual spiders to obtain enough food to disperse, thus maintaining the overall population. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2017 | Dr. Zhang's dissertation concerns computer graphics. He has developed novel numerical schemes that allow for restoring vorticity in fluid flow. Xinxin's work uses modern particle methods to solve large-scale problems with high speed. The resulting models provide realistic simulations that are rich in detail and are faithful to the physical properties of the fluid. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |