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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Dr. Pattanayak studied the technologies used for removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. He designed a method that combined biological and chemical treatments. His successful validation of the design will expand the scope of available wastewater treatment technologies, to meet the stringent water quality goals in many parts of the world. | Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Kashefian Naieni investigated the fabrication of small-scale structures using carbon nanotubes. He demonstrated the significance of previously neglected phenomena in creating micro-electronic devices from a solution. His research is a step forward in developing reliable methods for fabrication of devices such as sensors based on nano-particles. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Wlodarska examined the important role our intestinal microbes play in intestinal disease. She discovered that microbes regulate the intestinal mucus layer, a key component of human health, and identified a novel immune pathway controlling this mucus production. This knowledge is critical in developing new therapeutics for intestinal disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Choi completed her research in behavioural neuro-science, with a focus on substance abuse. She used a model of drug dependency to investigate plasticity in the brain and a neuro-biological substrate that contributes to the development of addiction. Her findings lead to the potential development of novel targets in the treatment of addiction. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Mansoor developed new manufacturing methods for inexpensive micro-needle devices. Micro-needles provide a pain-free alternative to traditional hypodermic needles for drug injection and for the extraction of compounds from the body for analysis. He also applied these microneedles to the assessment of drug transport in skin tissue. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Mundel studied two provincial health programs that intersect with BC's food movement. She demonstrated different strengths and limitations in the collaboration between provincial health institutions and grassroots actors in service of this movement's social, health and ecological goals. She also suggested ways to improve such collaboration. | Doctor of Philosophy in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Michalak studied the way sound is used in the literature and culture of the twentieth century. He argues that writing of that period was affected by images and noises of the modern day media systems. Attention to sound requires new ways of making sense of literature, which benefit scholars and readers interested in media. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Lyons-Thomas studied ways in which Grade 11 students verbalized their thought processes during an assessment of complex thinking. She found that verbalization is a useful tool for educational assessment. This research suggests that verbalization should be used in test design in order to understand how students may interpret assessment tasks. | Doctor of Philosophy in Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Guo studied ways in which computer vision applications learn to recognize objects with minimal training. He developed several novel algorithms that successfully improve the performance of image understanding and searching, with reduced user input. These algorithms point out a promising direction for personalized image management | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Buffam developed a method of comparative analysis that tracks the social and legal effects of racism across divergent geopolitical contexts. He used this method to document how racial discourses of criminality shaped the legal regulation of Chicago's African American populations and Vancouver's South Asian populations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Rojo studied the field of Algebraic Topology. He focussed on the spaces of group homomorphisms, particularly the space of commuting orthogonal matrices. He computed the number of connected components of these spaces, drawing on combinatorics, linear algebra and topology. He shed some light on the structure of these very complicated spaces. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Sun examined the security of two popular social login systems that have been adopted by millions of websites, and social networks such as Facebook. His investigation revealed several critical weaknesses in the design and implementation of these login systems. He proposed and evaluated practical countermeasures to mitigate the uncovered threats. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Joty developed automatic methods for analyzing written conversations in asynchronous media, for example blogs and emails. These methods assist us in understanding conversations, as well as improving automatic language processing applications such as text summarization, text generation, sentiment analysis, question answering and machine translation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Freeman collaborated on projects with the University of Calgary and The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto to understand how cells interact and interpret their surroundings. His work uncovered mechanisms that control thresholds for cellular responses in normal and cancer cells. These findings will inform vaccine design and cancer therapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Bakhoda conducted his research in the field of Computer Architecture. He developed a framework to simultaneously increase the performance and reduce the cost of hardware accelerators like graphic processing units. His findings can be employed in a wide range of hardware designs ranging from future smart phones to high performance servers. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Bordet studied volcanic rocks formed 50 million years ago in central British Columbia. She showed that volcanism was triggered by dynamic interactions between tectonic plates and ancient subducted slabs beneath the Canadian Cordillera. Outcomes of this study apply to both mineral and oil and gas resources exploration in British Columbia. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Kazemi developed a microbial fuel cell that can effectively produce electricity from wastewater. She investigated whether the membrane that separates the anode from the cathode in the fuel cell can reduce energy costs. Her findings will be a step towards determining whether microbial fuel cells will reduce the cost of wastewater treatment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Kimlicka examined how disease-causing mutations affect the structure and stability of Ryanodine Receptors, calcium channels with primary roles in muscle contraction. This research furthered our understanding of the mechanisms underlying inherited cardiac arrhythmias and skeletal muscle disorders. | Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Rajabi Nasab examined the flow field inside low consistency paper-making refiners. These refiners are mechanical devices employed to modify the properties of the paper fibres. The findings of this investigation can significantly improve the efficiency of the refining process in the pulp and paper industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Persson studied Old English literature in the Department of English at UBC. His work demonstrates that Biblical commentaries on Job and Ecclesiastes are relevant contexts for interpreting Old English wisdom poetry. It benefits scholars of English and Theology, as well as those interested in how wisdom is handed down within cultures. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Hung's research focused on designing integrated circuits more efficiently. He developed techniques for exploiting re-configurable technologies to rapidly accelerate the process of locating and eliminating design flaws. As a result of this research, computing devices will be of higher quality and be in the hands of consumers more quickly. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Golding's research on the sedimentology and fossil record of Triassic rocks from northeastern British Columbia has allowed him to determine the age, provenance and tectonic setting of these important, hydrocarbon-bearing sediments. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Latifi studied the way structures might respond to an earthquake when they are close to the causative fault. He factored the flexibility of the foundation system into his research. Results of this study help engineers to predict the expected response of various structures which are close to a fault, and might be affected by Near-Fault ground motions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Hasselfield made measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background to find distant clusters of galaxies. Counting galaxy clusters and measuring their mass tells us how in-homogeneous the matter distribution was in the very early Universe. This helps us to understand what physical phenomena were at play in the moments after the Big Bang. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2014 | A hallmark of diabetes is the loss of insulin producing beta-cells in the pancreas. Dr. Yang discovered and characterized novel factors that promote the survival of beta-cells under conditions found in diabetic patients. Her studies have important implications for the development of novel therapies for the treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |