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, May 27, 2026 12:30 PM - Room 203
Chantelle Cocquyt
(Psychology)
Emotional Context as a Scaffold for Remembering
Supervisor(s): Professor Daniela Palombo
Thursday, May 28, 2026 12:00 PM - Zoom
Michael Paramo
(Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice)
Mutant Methodologies: Intuitive Mixed-Media Autoethnographic Approaches Toward Transformative Education
Supervisor(s): Professor Pilar Riano-Alcala
Monday, June 1, 2026 9:00 AM - Zoom
Dingqing Yang
(Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Towards Efficient and Secure, and Private Machine Learning Systems
Supervisor(s): Professor Mieszko Lis
Monday, June 1, 2026 12:30 PM - Room 203
Maricela Best McKay
(Mathematics)
Insights into Neural Network Learning of Structured Models: Optimization, Architectures and Scientific Surrogates
Supervisor(s): Professor Brian Wetton, Professor Bhushan Gopaluni
Monday, June 1, 2026 12:30 PM - Room 200
Amy Wang
(MD/PhD Program)
Uncovering and Exploiting Biological Vulnerabilities in Synovial Sarcoma
Supervisor(s): Professor Michael Underhill, Professor Torsten Nielsen
Tuesday, June 2, 2026 12:30 PM - Room 203
Soroush Azhdari
(Materials Engineering)
Analysis of Local Manufacturing Variability in Polymer Melt Extrusion 3D Printing
Supervisor(s): Professor Sergey Kravchenko
Tuesday, June 2, 2026 12:30 PM - Room 200
Yun-Wen Mao
(Chemistry)
Machine Learning Approaches to Optimization in Chemical Compound Space
Supervisor(s): Professor Roman Krems
Wednesday, June 3, 2026 12:00 PM - Room 200
Gabrielle Tournaire
(Physics and Astronomy)
Measurements in Quantum Topological Phases of Matter and Quantum Computing
Supervisor(s): Professor Sven Bachmann
Friday, June 5, 2026 9:00 AM - Zoom
Katie Grimes
(Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education)
Embodied Encounters: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Exploration of Human-Horse Interactions with Veterans
Supervisor(s): Professor Marla Buchanan
Friday, June 5, 2026 12:30 PM - Zoom
Zhengyang Ye
(Forestry & Environmental Stewardship)
Development and Evaluation of Common-Garden-Based and Genomic-Based Ecological Models for Climate Change Adaptation in Interior Spruce
Supervisor(s): Professor Tongli Wang
Monday, June 8, 2026 9:00 AM - 3335, Pharmaceutical Sciences Building, 2405 Wesbrook Mall
Sina Halvaei
(Pharmaceutical Sciences)
Developing Novel Methods for Extracellular Vesicle Analysis and Understanding Their Role in Breast Cancer Chemoresistance
Supervisor(s): Professor Karla Williams
Monday, June 8, 2026 1:00 PM - D213, Chemistry Bldg, 2036 Main Mall
Shambhu Chandra
(Chemistry)
Synthesis and Functionalization of Key Amino Acid Residues in Amantin for the Development of Therapeutic Candidates
Supervisor(s): Professor David Perrin
Tuesday, June 9, 2026 9:00 AM - Room 200
ARIEL LITTLE
(English Language and Literatures)
Semi-Permeable Selves: Hygienic Discourse and the Biopolitics of Girls' Health, 1870-1920
Supervisor(s): Professor Mary Megan Chapman
Thursday, June 11, 2026 9:00 AM - Room 200
Fanny Dupont
(Statistics)
Advanced Statistical Methods for Uncovering Complex Latent Processes in Animal Movement
Supervisor(s): Professor Marie Auger-Méthé, Professor Marianne Marcoux
Wednesday, June 17, 2026 11:30 AM - Zoom
Viola Provost
(Forestry & Environmental Stewardship)
TikTok as a Platform for Environmental Communication: An Analysis of Content, Creators, and Consumers
Supervisor(s): Professor Hamish van der Ven