Among the most critical elements of any doctoral exam, from the perspective of those who coordinate these complexities, is the search for a strong Chair. Yet this search serves as a perennial challenge to the Doctoral Examinations team. We consider ourselves very lucky indeed if we issue fewer than 10 invitations before confirming 1 chair for an upcoming exam. It is not at all unusual in some disciplines to invite 30 or more chairs before some gracious faculty member agrees to help us out.
If you would like to contribute your time and wisdom to UBC’s doctoral exams:
- Please have a look at the list of upcoming exams below and if one interests you, please send us an email to graduate.doctoral@ubc.ca
- Or send us an email detailing the areas that interest you and days/times that you might be generally available and we'll contact you as new exams are scheduled. Again, send an email to graduate.doctoral@ubc.ca
Please bear in mind that the chair cannot be affiliated with the candidate’s graduate program, or a member of the supervisor's department..
Wednesday, September 3, 2025 9:00 AM - Zoom
Kangkang Duan
(Civil Engineering)
Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Robot Control for Efficient and Safe Construction
Supervisor(s): Professor Omar Swei, Professor Zhengbo Zou
Wednesday, September 3, 2025 12:30 PM - Room 200
Ning Shen
(Statistics)
Probabilistic Modeling of High-Throughput Sequencing Data for Enhanced Understanding of DNA Methylation Heterogeneity
Supervisor(s): Professor Keegan Korthauer
Friday, September 5, 2025 11:00 AM - 288, ICICS, 2366 Main Mall
Junbin Zhang
(Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Detection, Attribution, and Localization of Manipulated Images
Supervisor(s): Professor Panos Nasiopoulos
Tuesday, September 9, 2025 2:00 PM - Zoom
Zitao Chen
(Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Advancing Privacy and Accountability in Machine Learning
Supervisor(s): Professor Karthik Pattabiraman
Wednesday, September 10, 2025 1:00 PM - 204, Chemical and Biological Engineering Building, 2360 East Mall
Majd Tabbara
(Chemical and Biological Engineering)
Selective Propylene Production: Propane Oxidative Dehydrogenation Catalyzed by Molten Metal Alloys & by a Mixed-Bed of h-BN and Bi2O3
Supervisor(s): Professor Chester (David) Upham
Monday, September 15, 2025 12:30 PM - 202, School of Population and Public Health, 2206 East Mall
Alexandra Lukey
(Population and Public Health)
Evolving Strategies for Ovarian Cancer Prevention: Exploring the Acceptability and Feasibility of Risk-Reducing Salpingectomy
Supervisor(s): Professor Michael Law, Professor Gillian Elizabeth Hanley
Wednesday, September 17, 2025 9:00 AM - Room 200
Bridget Barraclough
(Zoology)
Hoxb8 Lineage Tracing to Map Spinofugal Projections Related to Motor Recovery Following Spinal Cord Injury
Supervisor(s): Professor Matthew Ramer
Wednesday, September 17, 2025 10:00 AM - 1416, Life Sciences Institute, 2350 Health Sciences Mall
Irafasha Casmil
(Genome Science and Technology)
Expanding the Repertoire of Self-Amplifying RNA Vectors for Next Generation Gene Therapies
Supervisor(s): Professor Anna Blakney
Wednesday, September 17, 2025 12:30 PM - Room 200
Gareth William Maddock Smith
(Physics and Astronomy)
Detecting Antihydrogen Annihilations in ALPHA-g for Measurement of Gravitational Free Fall
Supervisor(s): Professor Takamasa Momose, Professor Makoto Fujiwara