BioProducts Institute
The BioProducts Institute is changing the way our society collaborates with nature for a sustainable and renewable future.
Bringing together state of the art research and resources in a unique innovative ecosystem, BPI aims to unlock the power of nature to make a positive impact on all sectors from transportation to building to healthcare.
Unlocking Nature for Sustainable Solutions
The BioProducts Institute (BPI) is an innovative ecosystem of high-impact fundamental and applied researchers working on solutions to today’s climate and environmental challenges. The Institute brings together inter- and multi-disciplinary researchers comprised of scientists, engineers, and market and policy experts to unlock the full potential of materials, chemicals and fuels produced in nature. Based on the guiding principles of circularity, sustainability and renewability, BPI seeks to reduce society’s footprint and tackle rampant environmental challenges such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and plastic waste.
Our research themes center around biocatalytic transformation and engineering of biomass, bio-nanoparticle enabled materials, bio-based polymers and carbon materials and Biorefinery & biofuels systems. By conducting research, we are able to transform our findings into bioproducts that will serve as catalysts to launch Canada's bioeconomy. With increasing demands for low carbon fuel, plastic alternatives and degradable materials, the BioProducts Institute looks forward to being a world leader in the green economy sector.
Campus
Vancouver
Affiliated UBC Faculty & Postdocs
| Name | Role | Research Interests |
|---|---|---|
| Baldwin, Susan | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Bioprocess engineering, bioremediation, biomedical reaction modelling |
| Bi, Xiaotao | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chemical engineering; Biomass and Bioenergy; Electrostatics of Powders; Fluidization; Fuel Cells Water Management; Green Engineering; Industrial Symbiosis; Life Cycle Analysis; Multiphase Chemical Reactors; Particle technology |
| Bohlmann, Joerg | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | plant biochemistry, forestry genomics, forest health, conifers, poplar, bark beetle, mountain pine beetle, natural products, secondary metabolites, terpenes, floral scent, grapevine, Conifer genomics Forest health genomics Mountain pine beetle, fungus, pine interactions and genomics Chemical ecology of conifer, insect interactions |
| Brumer, Harry | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Biochemistry; Chemical sciences; Genomics; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; biomass; carbohydrates; cellulose; Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis; Enzymes; microbiota; plant cell walls; polysaccharides |
| Cranston, Emily | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Nanoparticle synthesis, properties and applications; Bio-based materials and nanocellulose; Atomic force microscopy (forces, adhesion, friction, imaging); Colloid and interface science; Polymer chemistry; Cellulose nanocrystals; Bioproducts; Foams, emulsions, aerogels |
| Dahmen, Joseph | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | technical methods and cultural effects of resource use at the scales of architecture and territory. |
| Dee, Derek | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Enzymes (including kinetics and mechanisms, and biocatalyst); Proteomics; Nanofabrication, growth and self-assembly; Food chemistry (including fermentation); Protein Folding; protein stability; protein aggregation; protein engineering; funtional amyloid; bacterial amyloid; protein nanofibrils; food proteins; legume proteins; aspartic proteases; psychrophilic enzymes; precision fermentation; Biophysics; food chemistry; alternative food proteins; optical tweezers; single molecule force spectroscopy; cryoEM |
| Ellis, Naoko | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chemical engineering; Chemical Processes; CO2 capture and utilization; Interdisciplinary teaching and learning; multiphase systems; thermochemical conversion of biomass |
| Eltis, Lindsay | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Biochemistry; Genomics; Immunology; Microbiology; Bacterial catabolism of steroids and lignin; biocatalyst development; Enzymes and Proteins; Metabolism (Living Organisms); Mycobacterium tuberculosis |
| Feng, Haibo | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Building construction engineering; Concrete, cementitious materials and other architectural and construction materials; BIM; Construction; LCA; sustainability; Wood Products; Zero energy / caron building |
| Frostad, John | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chemical engineering; Food sciences (including food engineering); Emulsions; Physics of Soft Matter; Agricultural Sprays; Food Physics; Interfacial Rheology; Novel Instrumentation; Foams |
| Gates, Derek | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Inorganic chemistry, materials science, polymer chemistry, catalysis |
| Grecov, Dana | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Numerical modelling and mechanical characterisation; Tribology |
| Green, Sheldon | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Fluid Mechanics; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; building ventilation; railroads; papermaking |
| Hallam, Steven | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Microbiome; Microbial ecology; metagenomics; Biological engineering; Synthetic biology; Bioinformatics; Machine Learning; Entrepreneurship |
| Hatzikiriakos, Savvas | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Polymer melt and suspension rheology, food rheology, polymer melt processing, superhydrophobicity, surface science, winter sports expert, ski/skate performance and snow/ice friction. |
| Hudson, Zachary | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Synthesis of materials; Functional materials in materials chemistry sciences; Organic chemical synthesis; Optical properties of materials; Luminescent materials; Organic electronics; Polymer chemistry; Organic chemistry; Organic light-emitting diodes |
| Jetter, Reinhard | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chemical sciences; Plant biology; Analytical Chemistry; Biological Chemistry; Molecular Genetics; Plant Biochemistry; Plant Ecophysiology |
| Jiang, Feng | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | bio-based nanomaterials, carbohydrate chemistry, chemistry, sustainability, wood science |
| Kozak, Robert Antal | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Forest-dependent communities in transition, international development & poverty alleviation, value-added strategies, forest certification & corporate social responsibility, forest sector sustainability & competitiveness, marketing, management & consumer behaviour |
| MacLachlan, Mark | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Supramolecular inorganic chemistry; Inorganic materials; Supramolecular organic chemistry; Synthesis of materials; Functional materials in materials chemistry sciences; Supramolecular Chemistry; Nanomaterials; Biomaterials; Cellulose nanocrystals; Chitin; Materials Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry |
| Mansfield, Shawn | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | plant metabolism, cellulose biosynthesis, lignin biosynthesis, wood formation, wood quality, cell wall biochemistry, tree biotechnology, transgenics, Tree biotechnology |
| Mehrkhodavandi, Parisa | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | 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 |
| Mohn, William | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | 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 |
| Mohseni, Madjid | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chemical engineering; Water quality engineering; Drinking Water; Chemical Pollutants; Used Water; Clean Technologies; Advanced oxidation; Drinking water quality and treatment; Electrochemical water treatment processes; UV based water purification and treatment; Water re-use; Per- and Poly-fluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) |
| Olson, James | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Application of Physics and Fluid Mechanics to Problems Associated with the Pulp and Paper Industry, Mechanical Energy Reduction in Mechanical Pulping |
| Paradis, Gregory | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Design and analysis of sytems; Modelling and applications of systems; Production systems engineering; Systems engineering, n.e.c.; Programming in operational research (including linear and nonlinear programming); Combinatorial and network optimization (including programming and metaheuristics); Optimization under uncertainty (including stochastic and robust optimization); Bilevel optimization and game theory; Stochastic models (including queueing and simulation); Decisions and risk analysis; Forest management; Forest Operations; forest estate modelling; carbon budget modelling; Ecosystem services; cumulative effects; Operations Research; industrial engineering; computer science; forest economics; forest sector sustainability; mining sector sustainability |
| Renneckar, Scott | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Advanced renewable materials, biopolymer structure characterization, Clean fractionation of biomass, Electrospinning Fibers, Nanocellulose, Self-assembly of biopolymers |
| Samuels, Anne Lacey | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Plant biology; plant cell biology; plant cell walls |
| Schafer, Laurel | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | catalysis, chemical synthesis, heterocycles, titanium, zirconium, yttrium, tantalum, hydroamination, hydroaminoalkyltion, biodegraable polymers, sustainable synthesis, Green Chemistry, Organometallic and organic chemistry |
| Servati, Peyman | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Energy Systems, Emerging Micro/Nano Technologies |
| Sowlati, Taraneh | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Wood Science, Industrial Engineering in Wood Science |
| Straus, Suzana | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chemical sciences; Proteins; Antimicrobial peptides; Protein-protein interactions; Structure-function; Viral membrane proteins |
| Trajano, Heather | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chemical engineering; Biomass (Energy); Wood; Pulp and paper; Biochemicals; Biomass extractives recovery and utilization; Biorefining; catalysis; Hemicellulose; Kinetics; Pretreatment |
| van der Ven, Hamish | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Sustainable supply chain governance; Sustainable production; Impacts of digital technologies on the environment; Transnational governance; International Political Economy; Environmental governance |
| Wang Kazun, Siyun | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Food sciences (including food engineering); Agri-food Transformation Products; Microbiology; Bioactive Molecules; Food microbiology; Food safety |
| Yadav, Vikramaditya | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chemical engineering; Genomics; Medical and biomedical engineering; Bioactive Molecules; Biocatalysis; Bioinformatics; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Biomass (Energy); Biomaterials; Bioprocess engineering; Bioremediation; Biotechnology; drug delivery; Drug discovery & development; Medical biotechnology; Metabolic engineering; Structural Tissue Engineering / Biomaterials; Synthetic biology; Technoeconomics; Tissue Engineering; Vaccines |
| Zerriffi, Hisham | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Environmental geography; Forestry biomass and bioproducts; Modelling and applications of systems; Environment and natural resources economics; Environmental policy; Biomass (Energy); Energy Transformation and Energy Using; International development; Environment and Society; Ideological, Political, Economical and Social Environments of Social Transformations; Social and Cultural Factors of Environmental Protection; energy poverty |
| Ziels, Ryan | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Environmental engineering; Genomics; Environmental biotechnology; Anaerobic digestion; Biological nutrient removal; Environmental Systems Engineering; Microbial biotechnology; Microbial ecology; Multi-omics; Resource recovery; Sustainable biological wastewater treatment |