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...
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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
- Biodiversity Research Centre
- Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research
- Centre for Microbial Diversity and Evolution
Computational Sciences and Mathematics
- Data Science Institute
- Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems
- Institute of Applied Mathematics
- Statistical Consulting and Research Laboratory
- Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
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
- Centre for Blood Research
- Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
- International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries
- Life Sciences Institute
- Michael Smith Laboratories
- Neglected Global Diseased Initiative
Chemistry and Materials Science
- Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory
- Max Planck-UBC Centre for Quantum Materials
- Quantum Devices Group
- Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute
Physics
- Antihydrogen Trapping and Spectroscopy at CERN
- Pacific Institute for Theoretical Physics
- TRIUMF: Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics
- UBC ATLAS Project at Large Hadron Collider
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
Graduate Degree Programs
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.
Recent Thesis Submissions
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Diet and the microbiome in Parkinson's disease (MIIM - PHD)
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Dr. Damberg studied brightness perception in cinema and found that we need intensities up to 20 times or higher compared to today's movie projectors for realistic looking images. He developed a new technology to efficiently achieve these intensities and commercialized it in a local start-up. He recently sold to the world's largest cinema projector maker. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2017 | Using machine learning techniques, Dr. Zhang developed a method to group high-dimensional cases using hierarchical approaches. He also developed a predictive framework called Regression Phalanxes which selects subsets of features that work well together for prediction. This new framework outperforms current methods in a variety of applications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Desnoyer studied the fundamental reactivity of late transition metal complexes. He examined how metals like nickel and rhodium interact with other molecules to either make or break chemical bonds. His work will be used to develop new, more efficient methods to make more complex products from simple, abundant starting materials. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Harrison studied the elemental and isotopic composition of volcanoes along the 2300 km Northwest Hawaiian Ridge. She integrated those results with the entire 5800 km-long chain, and showed the chemistry varies temporally. This implies that the deep mantle contains distinct reservoirs sampled episodically by the moving Hawaiian plume. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Gibbons examined the evolution of physiological traits in the threespine stickleback fish using both whole organism and molecular genetic approaches. He explored the roles of salinity and temperature in driving evolutionary divergence during freshwater colonization by this species. His work helps us understand current patterns in fish distribution. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Da Silva developed algorithms and software systems for solving large-scale inverse problems. His work helps to reduce the impact of missing data on solving these problems, leading to more robust and cost-effective data-acquisition methods. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Keeler studied fast methods for integral equations applied to problems in fluid animation. The resulting surface-only methods implicitly handled infinite boundaries such as the ocean's depth. He also studied compressing the resulting surface data for use in real-time applications such as virtual reality and computer games. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Vincart-Emard simulated black hole dynamics to address fundamental questions related to superconductivity, entanglement propagation, and spacetime instabilities in higher-dimensional settings. Findings revealed unexpected physical consequences that may impact the solid state and gravitational physics communities alike. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2017 | Dr. Schelew designed a photonic integrated circuit in a silicon microchip with potential applications in information processing. She developed a novel protocol for extracting all relevant information about the circuits' optical response. The results of this work will help guide future designs of circuit components used to process optical signals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2017 | Identifying anomalies in multivariate data is important in many applications including fraud detection. Dr. Leung developed methods to identify individual and chunks of deviating data cells in a data set. He subsequently extended his method to serve as an initial step for estimating different statistical quantities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |