Meet our Students

UBC has more than 11,000 graduate students, including more than 2,500 international graduate students from all over the world. Some of our students have provided profiles about their research which we would like to share with you. This list is by no means complete and we do not have a profile for each country we have international students from. However, these snapshots will give you an idea of why students chose to come to UBC, what they like about Vancouver and what their career goals are.

Country

Faculty

Lotenna Olisaeloka

Nigeria

Doctor of Philosophy in Population and Public Health (PhD)

Generative Artificial Intelligence for Mental Health Support: A Mixed Methods Investigation of Prevalence, Utilization Patterns, and Outcomes Among Canadian Students

Yasmin Elliott

Canada

Master of Arts in School and Applied Child Psychology (MA)

Newcomer Youth School Integration: Informing Culturally Responsive Practice through an Arts-Based Engagement Ethnography

Niko Andrianos

Canada

Master of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering (MASc)

Implementing Dynamic Virtual Power Plants with Model Predictive Control

Samuel Brown

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD)

Advanced Characterization of Flow and Deformation in Porous Media

person standing in a winter jacket outside

Yue Guo

China

Doctor of Philosophy in Special Education (PhD)

Effective writing intervention and optimal assessment practices for students with learning difficulties

Dane Sands

Bahamas

Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD)

Functional genomics and cellular engineering in K. phaffii for enhanced antimicrobial peptide secretion

Taylor Swift-LaPointe

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Science (PhD)

Early season heatwaves: dynamics, trends and predictability

Yu-Chi (Serena) Chuang

Taiwan

Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD)

Investigating the Role of SHPRH in Lung Adenocarcinoma Initiation and Development

Ilena Yim

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Craniofacial Science (PhD)

Temporal patterns in the incidence of oral cancer and pre-cancer in the 21st century

Maria Stephenson

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD)

Development and evaluation of candidate biomarkers to predict patient prognosis and treatment response in metastatic bladder cancer

Margarita Kapustina

Lithuania

Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD)

Identifying the cell-type-specific substrate for alertness in the mouse brain

Annika Szarka

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD)

Understanding proprioceptive contributions towards implicit sensorimotor adaptation

Erica McAdam

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Studies (PhD)

Evaluating the impacts of innovative policy responses to the toxic drug supply crisis among youth and young adults who use drugs in Vancouver, British Columbia

Sunu (Isabel) Kim

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Genetics (PhD)

Evaluating parental satisfaction and empowerment with genetic testing in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)

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Sarah Ferencz

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD)

Street-level bureaucrats in policy implementation: a study of drug decriminalization in BC, Canada

Phillip Kirwin

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD)

Electro-optical quantum transduction with silicon defect centres

Molly Zhang

China

Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (PhD)

Growing Native Food Plants: A Comparative Study on Socio-Ecological Outcomes Across Landscapes

Harjeev Sudan

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD)

Neuroprognostication after opioid-associated post-cardiac arrest brain injury

Thusitha Wijewardhana Rathnayake

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Civil Engineering (PhD)

Impact of Different UV-LED Wavelengths and Their Doses on Microplastic Degradation and Chemical Leaching

Aidan Comeau

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD)

Investigating Interactions between Exercise & Ozone Exposure

Samadhee Kaluarachchi

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD)

Characterizing changing flood risks and their drivers for advancing nature-based flood management in British Columbia

Marina Mehling

United States of America

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD)

Biofunctionalization of Cellulose

Daniel Stewart

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD)

Innovating tidal marsh restoration practices in Northeast Pacific estuaries

Firth MacKenzie McEachern

Philippines

Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Literacy Education (PhD)

Home/community languages ("mother tongues") in Southeast Asian education systems

Georgia Landgraf

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Classics (PhD)

Athenian depictions of Thracian women in art, and how such depictions communicate Athenian attitudes towards this resident alien population.

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Jenna Yuzwa

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy (PhD)

Aristotle's Political-Ethical Framework and Contemporary Eudaimonist Virtue Ethics

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Sean O'Rourke

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD)

zuminstm e tmíxw kt ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓ (“We care for the land of T’eqt’aqtn”): Rebuilding ƛ̓əq̓ƛ̓áq̓tn̓mx (Kanaka Bar Band) Governance and Stewardship through an Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area

Amin Sadeghpour

Iran

Master of Applied Science in Civil Engineering (MASc)

Summertime Upwelling Events in Multi-Arm Fjord-Type Lakes: A Case Study of Quesnel Lake

Jiin Yoo

Korea, Republic of

Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies (PhD)

South Korean Immigrant Parents’ Educational Engagement: A Critical Ethnographic Study in the Greater Vancouver Area

Jenna Chisholm

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Measurement of Top Pair Production in Association with b-jets using the ATLAS Experiment

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Anjana Rajendran

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD)

Optimizing stroke rehabilitation through neurophysiology

Emily Booker

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies (PhD)

Creating Arts-Based Methods to Evaluate Indigenous Community Programs

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Nisha Johal

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (PhD)

Characterizing mitochondrial transport proteins in pancreatic cancer

Katherine Herperger

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Time-dependent control protocols for directing the self-assembly of non-equilibrium diblock copolymers

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Behnam Maneshgar

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)

Understanding the Language of Genes: AI Approaches to Modeling and Interpreting Transcriptomic Profiles

Gurcharan Uppal

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Separating and characterizing atmospheric ice nucleating substances

Makayla Freeman

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Counselling Psychology (PhD)

Supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ Parents: Exploring Preferences for Wellbeing and Parenting Programs

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Regan Thompson

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD)

Reflections beyond the studio mirror: Understanding the embodied experiences of Canadian ballet dancers across social location using multimedia storytelling

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Tiffany Price

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD)

Examining anticholinergic effects on disease progression and survival outcomes in patients diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)

Omran Safi

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Investigating the impact of distinctive features of episodic memories on retrospective duration estimates

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Astou Thiam

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Rehabilitation Sciences (PhD)

Exploring the experiences of West Central African immigrants in Metro Vancouver through a hospitality lens.

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Lucas Kuhn

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Astronomy (PhD)

Probing the Baryon Cycle in a Cool-Core Galaxy Cluster with the James Webb Space Telescope

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Kay Anderson

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD)

Transgender and gender-diverse individuals' experiences with physical activity: A hybrid mixed methods approach towards creating equitable and inclusive physical activity spaces

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Vanessa Chan

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Pharmaceutical Sciences (PhD)

Targeted Delivery of TLR7/8 Agonists for the Enhancement of Cancer Immunotherapy

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Maude Larivière

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Nucleosynthesis of heavy elements via the rapid neutron capture process in neutron star mergers

Sheri Jahan Chowdhury

Bangladesh

Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD)

On-Chip Semiconductor Laser Integration to Optical Biosensors Using Photonic Wire Bonding

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Daniel Barker-Rothschild

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD)

Assessing the impact of drought-induced abiotic stress on the chemical composition of Western redcedar: Implications for forest feedstock valorization under shifting climate

Asad Hasan

Canada

Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)

The causes and consequences of evolutionary adaptation on genetic diversity, differentiation, and extinction risk