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..
Friday, February 27, 2026 9:00 AM - Room 200
Xianya Qu
(Microbiology and Immunology)
Connections Between Phosphate Metabolism, the Endoplasmic Reticulum, and Drug Tolerance in Cryptococcus neoformans
Supervisor(s): Professor James Kronstad
Friday, February 27, 2026 9:30 AM - 204, ICICS, 2366 Main Mall
Jinfan Yang
(Computer Science)
Geometric Optimization and Neural Models for Advanced Computer Graphics Applications
Supervisor(s): Professor Alla Sheffer
Monday, March 2, 2026 1:00 PM - Zoom
GUANYU CHEN
(Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education)
Standardizing Predictors for Effect Size Measures in Multilevel Modeling With Random Slopes and Sampling Weights
Supervisor(s): Professor Amery Dai Ling Wu, Professor Yan Liu
Tuesday, March 3, 2026 1:00 PM - James Hogg Conference Centre, St Paul's Hospital, 1081 Burrard St
Elizabeth Guinto
(Experimental Medicine)
Immunophenotyping of the Blood and Lungs in Airway Diseases at a Single-Cell Resolution
Supervisor(s): Professor Donald Sin
Wednesday, March 4, 2026 9:00 AM - Room 200
Temitayo Olarewaju
(Allard School of Law)
Land Grabbing Meets International Criminal Law
Supervisor(s): Professor James G. Stewart
Thursday, March 5, 2026 12:30 PM - Room 203
Elizabeth Stephens
(Medical Genetics)
Understanding Dominant-Negative States of the Cohesin Complex
Supervisor(s): Professor Philip Hieter, Professor Peter Stirling
Thursday, March 5, 2026 4:00 PM - Zoom
Xuyan Tang
(Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education)
Item Rescoring in Depression Measures: A Scoping Review of Rescoring Practices and Empirical Evaluation of Psychometric Consequences
Supervisor(s): Professor Anita Hubley
Friday, March 6, 2026 2:30 PM - X836, ICICS, 2366 Main Mall
Surbhi Palande
(Computer Science)
Lost in Translation: Giving SMR Drives a Second Chance
Supervisor(s): Professor Margo Seltzer, Professor Alexandra Fedorova
Monday, March 9, 2026 12:00 PM - Zoom
Hooman Vaseli
(Electrical & Computer Engineering)
Towards Interpretable Echocardiographic Diagnosis with Prototype-Based Deep Learning
Supervisor(s): Dr Purang Abolmaesumi
Monday, March 9, 2026 12:30 PM - Room 203
Kenny Chiu
(Statistics)
Randomization Tests for Distributional Group Symmetry
Supervisor(s): Professor Benjamin Bloem-Reddy
Monday, March 9, 2026 4:00 PM - Room 203
Rebekah Kartal
(Geography)
Theorizing and Practicing Perinatal Care through Birth Storytelling and Listening
Supervisor(s): Professor Juanita Sundberg, Professor Geraldine Pratt
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 9:00 AM - Room 200
Laura Del Pieve Gobbi
(Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program)
A Compassionate Journey Exploring Mental Health Disability in Academia Through Autoethnography and A/r/tography
Supervisor(s): Professor Rita Irwin, Professor Adele Diamond
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 9:00 AM - 3113, BC Children's Hospital Research Institute, 950 West 28th Avenue
Erica Qureshi
(MD/PhD Program)
Reducing Non-Urgent Pediatric Emergency Department Visits: Examining the Potential Feasibility, Benefits, and Risks of Pediatric ED Redirection Programs
Supervisor(s): Professor Quynh Doan
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 9:00 AM - 337, Michael Smith Laboratories, 2185 E Mall
Jinyi Tan
(Botany)
Dissection of Sclerotinia Sclerotiorum Biology Using Genetic and Cell Biology Approaches
Supervisor(s): Professor Xin Li
Wednesday, March 11, 2026 12:30 PM - Zoom
Jiejie Sun
(Forestry)
Quantifying Global Crop Yield Responses to Greenhouse CO₂ Enrichment: Synthesis, Optimization, and Climate Resilience
Supervisor(s): Professor Tongli Wang
Thursday, March 12, 2026 9:00 AM - Room 200
Yuan Xia
(Statistics)
Bridging Prediction and Causality: Evaluating Algorithms that Predict Treatment Benefit
Supervisor(s): Professor Paul A Gustafson, Professor Mohsen Sadatsafavi
Friday, March 13, 2026 9:00 AM - Room 200
Atul Aravindakshan
(Population and Public Health)
The Association of the Built Environment with Cancer Risk
Supervisor(s): Professor Trevor Dummer, Professor Parveen Bhatti
Friday, March 13, 2026 9:00 AM - Room 203
Addyson Frattura
(Educational Studies)
Expulsion and a Problem of Freedom
Supervisor(s): Professor Sam Rocha
Friday, March 13, 2026 1:30 PM - 337, Michael Smith Laboratories, 2185 E Mall
Lu Xu
(Botany)
Novel Gene Discovery in the Salicylic Acid Biosynthesis Pathway in Nicotiana benthamiana
Supervisor(s): Professor Yuelin Zhang, Professor Xin Li
Monday, March 16, 2026 2:00 PM - D213, Chemistry Bldg, 2036 Main Mall
Urmi Mody
(Chemistry)
Antimicrobial Potency, Mammalian Biocompatibility, and Intrinsic Fluorescence in Photochemically Crosslinked Polymer Coatings
Supervisor(s): Professor Michael Wolf
Friday, March 20, 2026 10:00 AM - Zoom
Poya Haghnegahdar
(Physics and Astronomy)
Resource States and Temporal Order of the Measurement-Based Model of Quantum Computation
Supervisor(s): Professor Gordon W. Semenoff, Professor Robert Raussendorf