How flies lay off the extra salty snacks
Fruit flies are known for their sweet tooth, but new research also indicates they may offer hints to how animals sense—and avoid—high...
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At UBC Science, outstanding scientists and students strive to unravel the principles that underlie our universe - from the subatomic to the macroscopic, from pure mathematics to biotechnology, from ecosystems to galactic systems. Through the breadth and depth of our academic endeavours and the calibre of the people who make up our community, we take pride in discovering new scientific knowledge and preparing Canada’s and the world’s next generation of scientists.
A diverse range of highly ranked programs
With access to master’s and doctoral degrees through nine departments and 350 research groups, our graduate students work with world-class faculty to explore the basic sciences, and to pursue interdisciplinary and applied research across departments and units. UBC’s research excellence in environmental science, math, physics, plant and animal science, computer science, geology and biology is consistently rated best in Canada by international and national ranking agencies.
Committed to outstanding graduate training
UBC Science houses a wide range of prestigious NSERC Collaborative Research and Training Experience and related industry programs: from atmospheric aerosols to high-throughput biology, from biodiversity research and ecosystems services to plant cell wall biosynthesis, from quantum science and new materials to applied geochemistry. The options for enriched graduate training in industry related fields are almost endless.
World-class research infrastructure
Our affiliated institutes and centres include UBC's Michael Smith Laboratories, Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute, Biodiversity Research Centre, Life Sciences Institute, Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences, Mineral Deposit Research Unit, and TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics.
Top research talent
UBC Science boasts more than 50 Canada Research Chairs, 12 fellows of the Royal Society of London, and has been home to two Nobel Laureates. Our graduate students have won 15 prestigious Vanier Scholarships.
A diverse, supportive community of scholars
UBC Science is committed to excellence, collaboration and inclusion. Women account for 41 per cent of the Faculty's graduate enrollments, and the percentage of international students has increased to 50 per cent over the past decade.
Mission
To nurture an exceptional scientific learning and research environment for the people of British Columbia, Canada, and the world.
Research Centres
Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology
- Biodiversity Research Centre
- Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research
- Centre for Microbial Diversity and Evolution
Computational Sciences and Mathematics
- Data Science Institute
- Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems
- Institute of Applied Mathematics
- Statistical Consulting and Research Laboratory
- Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
- Geophysical Inversion Facility
- Lithoprobe: Canada's National Geoscience Project
- Mineral Deposit Research Unit
- Pacific Centre for Isotopic and Geochemical Research
- Seismic Laboratory for Imaging and Modeling
Genomics and Biological Sciences
- Centre for High-Throughput Biology
- Geomatics for Informed Decisions Network
- Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics
- Michael Smith Laboratories
Human-Computer Interaction
- Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems
- Vancouver Institute for Visual Analytics
Life Sciences
- Biomedical Research Centre
- Centre for Blood Research
- Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
- International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries
- Life Sciences Institute
- Michael Smith Laboratories
- Neglected Global Diseased Initiative
Chemistry and Materials Science
- Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory
- Max Planck-UBC Centre for Quantum Materials
- Quantum Devices Group
- Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute
Physics
- Antihydrogen Trapping and Spectroscopy at CERN
- Pacific Institute for Theoretical Physics
- TRIUMF: Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics
- UBC ATLAS Project at Large Hadron Collider
Sustainability
Research Facilities
Designed to inspire collaboration and creativity across disciplines, the new Earth Sciences Building (ESB) lies at the heart of the science precinct on UBC’s Vancouver Campus. The $75 million facility is home to Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Statistics, the Pacific Institute of the Mathematical Sciences, and the dean’s office of the Faculty of Science. ESB’s updated teaching facilities will help Canada meet the challenges of a transforming and growing resource sector. Just as importantly, the researchers and students working and learning in the new facility will offer a valuable flow of well-trained talent, new ideas, and fresh professional perspectives to industry.
Research Highlights
Receiving more than $120 million in annual research funding, UBC Science faculty members conduct top-tier research in the life, physical, earth and computational sciences. Their discoveries help build our understanding of natural laws—driving insights into sustainability, biodiversity, human health, nanoscience and new materials, probability, artificial intelligence, exoplanets and a wide range of other areas.
UBC Science boasts 50 Canada Research Chairs and 10 fellows of the Royal Society of London, and has been home to two Nobel Laureates.
Schools / Departments
Graduate Degree Programs
Research Supervisors in Faculty
or browse the list of faculty members in various academic units. You may click each unit to view faculty members appointed in that unit. View the full faculty member directory for more search and filter options.
| Name | Academic Unit(s) | Research Interests |
|---|---|---|
| Scoates, James Stewart | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Origin and evolution of silicate magmas and mineralization potential; Applications of geochemistry and isotopic geochemistry to problems in petrology and mineral deposit geology; Physical volcanology and geochemical evolution of Large Igneous Provinces; Origin of igneous layering and the development of layered igneous intrusions; Petrologic, geochemical, isotopic, and geochronological aspects of Proterozoic anorthosite plutonic suites; Origin of magmatic Fe-Ti oxide, Cr, Ni, and PGE deposits |
| Scott, Douglas | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Astronomical and space sciences; Physical sciences; Cosmology; Science and Knowledge |
| Seltzer, Margo | Department of Computer Science | Computer Systems; Data Quality; Storage; Machine Learning & Systems; Systems for capturing and accessing data provenance; File Systems; databases; Transaction processing systems; Storage and analysis of graph-structured data; New architectures for parallelizing execution; Systems that apply technology to problems in healthcare.; Artificial Intelligence; Decision-making & Action; Software Practices; Networks, Systems and Security |
| Semenoff, Gordon Walter | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Physical sciences; Moedal experiment, Large Hadron Collider, CERN; String theory, quantum field theory, statistical mechanics; Theoretical and mathematical physics, the physics of elementary particles, condensed matter physics |
| Sheffer, Alla | Department of Computer Science | Computer graphics, shape modeling and geometry processing |
| Shepherd, Bruce | Department of Computer Science | algorithms, optimization, convex geometry, and graph theory |
| Sherman, John | Department of Chemistry | Molecular structure of protein |
| Shmerkin, Pablo | Department of Mathematics | |
| Shwartz, Vered | Department of Computer Science | Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing |
| Sigal, Leonid | Department of Computer Science | Computer and information sciences; Artificial Intelligence; Computer Science and Statistics; Parametric and Non-Parametric Inference; Computer Vision; Machine Learning; Semantic Recognition; Vision + Natural Language Processing; Visual Recognition and Understanding |
| Sigurdson, Kris | Department of Physics & Astronomy | The Universe, Cosmology, Dark Matter, Dark Energy, Particle Physics, Astrophysics, Cosmic Microwave Background, Cosmic 21-cm Fluctuations, Radio Astronomy, CHIME |
| Silberman, Lior | Department of Mathematics | Mathematics and statistics; Mathematics; Analysis on manifolds; Automorphic forms; Group Theory; Homogenous dynamics; Metric geometry; Number theory; Representation Theory; Topology |
| Slade, Gordon | Department of Mathematics | Renormalisation, Lace explansion, self-avoiding walk, scaling limits |
| Smit, Matthijs | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | 1) timing and duration of |
| Snutch, Terrance Preston | Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Psychiatry | Molecular and genetic analysis of the nervous system |
| Solymosi, Jozsef | Department of Mathematics | Additive Combinatorics, Discrete and Computational Geometry, Graph theory, and Combinatorial Number Theory |
| Song, Liang | Department of Botany | Plant genomics; Environmental stresses; Seed development; Gene Expression |
| Song, Dongjoon | ||
| Sossi, Vesna | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Medical Imaging, Brain imaging |
| Srivastava, Diane | Department of Zoology | biodiversity, tropics, Costa Rica, insects, mites, food webs, habitat loss, Community ecology, conservation, how species loss from food webs can affect the way ecosystems function |
| Stairs, Ingrid | Department of Physics & Astronomy | pulsars, gravity, general relativity, radio astronomy, radio pulsars, pulsar searches and long-term timing, Radio astronomy |
| Stamp, Philip C | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Theoretical physics, strongly-correlated condensed matter systems, quantum magnetism, decoherence, quantum information, gravity |
| Straus, Suzana | Department of Chemistry | Chemical sciences; Proteins; Antimicrobial peptides; Protein-protein interactions; Structure-function; Viral membrane proteins |
| Stull, Roland | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Meteorology and weather; weather; Meteorology; atmospheric science; numerical weather prediction; clean energy meteorology; storms; transportation weather; forest fire weather; weather disasters; atmospheric boundary layers; aviation meteorology |
| Sugioka, Kenji | Department of Zoology | Basic medicine and life sciences; Cell division; Animal morphogenesis; Cytoskeletal dynamics |
Pages
Recent Publications
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Science.
Recent Thesis Submissions
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FASTR : fast approximation of soft tissue in real time (Computer Science - MSC)
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Ufit : interactive attribute driven sewing pattern adjustment (Computer Science - MSC)
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Control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection by the macrophage Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
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Control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection by the macrophage Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 : [supplementary material] (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
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Using light to investigate taste reward circuits in Drosophila (Zoology - PHD)
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Antibiofilm coatings with long-term activity for medical devices (Chemistry - PHD)
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Structural and mechanistic studies on the biosynthesis of streptozocin (Chemistry - MSC)
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Investigation of L-type calcium channels as potential targets for cancer therapy (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
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Lipid A modifications in Bordetella pertussis : regulation and function of the lgm locus (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
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Investigating the role of the granulocyte-colony stimulating factor in tumour development (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
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Epigenetic dysregulation in lymphoid leukemias (Bioinformatics - PHD)
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Investigation of diazeniumdiolate formation by the fragin biosynthesis pathway in Burkholderia cenocepacia h111 (Genome Science and Technology - MSC)
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The effects of abiotic stress on isoform composition in polyploid Brassica napus (Genome Science and Technology - MSC)
Doctoral Citations
A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | There are many who believe that genes commonly code for more than one functional product, through a process called alternative splicing. Dr. Bhuiyan studied the evidence for this claim, and showed that - despite what we learn in our textbooks - alternative splicing is not as common as we thought. | Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Sauvé prepared organic semiconductors with novel optical properties and morphologies for potential application in electronic devices and in encryption. He also developed new luminescent dyes for efficient displays and biological imaging. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Yaghmaiean uncovered a novel group of proteins called receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases, which function downstream of other proteins and have redundant functions of transducing immune signals in the model plant Arabidopsis. These results provide new insights on such proteins as common transducers in different plant immune signalling events. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Yang researched fractals and decoupling in Euclidean harmonic analysis. Dr. Yang studied the size and geometric figures contained in fractals, or geometric objects possessing some self-similarity but highly rugged and oscillatory in nature. The decomposition of waves and their size properties in the physical space were studied using decoupling. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Choudhary investigated the coordination chemistry of radiometal ions, which are crucial for developing new metal-based radiopharmaceuticals. She synthesized diverse chelators for small to medium-sized ions and studied the effect of donor groups on ion chelation to deepen the understanding of their potential uses for clinical imaging and therapy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Moisseeva's work focused on improving our understanding of how wildfire smoke spreads in the atmosphere. She developed a method for estimating how high above the Earth's surface smoke from wildfires will rise. Her findings help improve the accuracy of air quality models and reduce negative smoke impacts for downwind communities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Science (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Janzen systematically studied the establishment of a replicative niche by Salmonella bacteria within host cells. Her findings set a new paradigm for future Salmonella research and demonstrated the necessity of a wholistic view of Salmonella-host interactions to illuminate the poorly understood Salmonella replicative niche. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Kostelnik studied new radioactive drugs for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. He found a number of compounds that form highly stable bonds with radioactive metals. These studies assist in the development of optimal radiopharmaceuticals for a wide range of diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Zhan studied the impact of genome doubling on the evolution of organisms. He found that genome doubling frequently coincides with the formation of new species but does not necessarily improve the evolutionary success of eukaryotic organisms. His work has helped to understand the role of genome doubling in shaping the biodiversity on Earth. | Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Livingston studied the cell biology of cannabis glandular trichomes, which are tiny structures that produce cannabinoids such as THC and CBD. His work revealed how the trichomes develop, and how the plant cells can produce and store cannabinoids. His work provides a molecular roadmap for cannabis production in a growing Canadian industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |