Cassandra Miller
Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)
The Efficacy of Quantitative Imaging for Dosimetry in Dual-Isotope Molecular Radiotherapies
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Applicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
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
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Silberman, Lior | Department of Mathematics | Mathematics and statistics; Mathematics; Analysis on manifolds; Automorphic forms; Group Theory; Homogenous dynamics; Metric geometry; Number theory; Representation Theory; Topology |
| Slade, Gordon | Department of Mathematics | Renormalisation, Lace explansion, self-avoiding walk, scaling limits |
| Smit, Matthijs | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | 1) timing and duration of |
| Snutch, Terrance Preston | Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Psychiatry | Medical, health and life sciences; Brain Disorders; Animal models; genomics; Drug discovery & development |
| Solymosi, Jozsef | Department of Mathematics | Additive Combinatorics, Discrete and Computational Geometry, Graph theory, and Combinatorial Number Theory |
| Song, Liang | Department of Botany | Plant genomics; Environmental stresses; Seed development; Gene Expression |
| Song, Dongjoon | , | |
| Sossi, Vesna | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Medical Imaging, Brain imaging |
| Srivastava, Diane | Department of Zoology | biodiversity, tropics, Costa Rica, insects, mites, food webs, habitat loss, Community ecology, conservation, how species loss from food webs can affect the way ecosystems function |
| Stairs, Ingrid | Department of Physics & Astronomy | pulsars, gravity, general relativity, radio astronomy, radio pulsars, pulsar searches and long-term timing, Radio astronomy |
| Stamp, Philip C | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Theoretical physics, strongly-correlated condensed matter systems, quantum magnetism, decoherence, quantum information, gravity |
| Straus, Suzana | Department of Chemistry | Chemical sciences; Proteins; Antimicrobial peptides; Protein-protein interactions; Structure-function; Viral membrane proteins |
| Stull, Roland | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Meteorology and weather; weather; Meteorology; atmospheric science; numerical weather prediction; clean energy meteorology; storms; transportation weather; forest fire weather; weather disasters; atmospheric boundary layers; aviation meteorology |
| Sugioka, Kenji | Department of Zoology | Basic medicine and life sciences; Cell division; Animal morphogenesis; Cytoskeletal dynamics |
| Sumaila, Ussif Rashid | Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs | Bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and the economics of high and deep seas fisheries |
| Summers, Alexander | Department of Computer Science | Programming languages and software engineering; programming languages; software engineering |
| Sun, Jim | Department of Microbiology & Immunology | host immunity to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) |
| Sun, Chin | Natural sciences; I am a field ecologist by training,having studied behaviour and ecology of mammals and birds | |
| Sutherland, Danica | Department of Computer Science | |
| Suttle, Curtis | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Botany, Department of Microbiology & Immunology | Bioinformatics; Fisheries sciences; Immunology; Microbiology; Oceanography; Plant biology; Biological Oceanography; Environmental Virology; Marine Environment; Marine Microbiology; Microbial Diversity; Phage; Viral Discovery; Viruses |
| Tanner, Martin | Department of Chemistry | Enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of the sialic acids in mammals |
| Taylor, Eric | Department of Zoology | possible threats to native fish; native BC fish biodiversity; fish biology and conservation; evolution, Evolution and conservation of fishes |
| Tetzlaff, Wolfram | Department of Zoology | Neural development and regeneration |
| Thachuk, Mark | Department of Chemistry | Reaction dynamics, mathematical techniques, Chemical physics |
| Tocheva, Elitza | Department of Microbiology & Immunology | Microbiology; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Functional and Structural Proteomics; Microbial Ultrastructure; Cryo-electron tomography and Structural Biology; bacterial physiology; Microbial Diversity; Secretion systems and Mechanisms of pathogenesis; Novel bacterial phyla |
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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
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. Pascual showed how variation in genetics, habitat and time impact gene exchange in Texan wild sunflowers. Their encounter with Hurricane Harvey revealed the remarkable resilience of the species. These findings provide unique insights into how a single species can diverge into two, and how some species might respond to climate-driven disasters. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Reynolds used experiments in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance to correct assumptions made in clinical practice about how fats and water interact in the human brain during an MRI scan, affecting accurate measurements. In doing so, he further developed a model of nuclear relaxation leading to a potential new form of contrast in MRI images. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Michta studied how phase transitions occur in finite volume for some classical models from statistical physics. This work contributes to a better and rigorous understanding of finite-size scaling theory in high dimensions. This is useful to the wide spectrum of people working at the interface between physics and mathematics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Tsai explored how luminescent materials and nanoparticles are useful for detecting biological molecules. In particular, she developed a new and improved method for directly sensing multiple genes, in parallel, in biological samples. She also elucidated important concepts in designing sensors based on more sustainable nanoparticle materials. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Can we find structure in complex systems, like social networks or the interactions between cell proteins? Dr. Briercliffe designed a class of statistical models for discovering hidden structure in networks.By harnessing probability theory, his research created practical tools that allow scientists to reveal order and structure in our complex world. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Walsgrove investigated how the incorporation of phosphorus into small molecules and polymers can create functional systems. Through his thesis work he showed that phosphorus can impart useful properties into synthetic frameworks and furthered the active research field of phosphorus chemistry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Genetic research implicates virtually every human gene in one or more diseases but cannot state how genetic differences lead to disease. Using statistical techniques, Dr. Casazza discovered the function of many genetic differences across different scenarios. Similarly, he shows that these functions are involved in disease for children and adults. | Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. He developed a protocol of multicomponent hetero-Diels-Alder reactions using a type of diene that has notable bench stability and imines. This method could be used to construct functionalized six-membered nitrogen heterocycles that have wide applications in natural products, active pharmaceutical ingredients and light-luminating materials. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Bevington developed image processing and analysis algorithms for human brain imaging data. These algorithms help provide more accurate and precise images of the healthy and diseased brain. They are being applied in clinical research studies that are discovering alterations to dopamine release and brain energy production in Parkinson's disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Alomeir developed new ways to simplify database provenance using visual tools and summarization techniques. He focused on relational databases, making provenance easier for users of database systems to explore. His methods also help users gain a clearer understanding of a database's origins in a concise manner. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |