Helena Koniar
Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Physics (PhD)
Assessing the Dosimetry and Biodistribution of Actinium-225 for Targeted Alpha Therapy
Canadian Immigration Updates
Applicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
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
- 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Medical, health and life sciences; Brain Disorders; Animal models; genomics; Drug discovery & development |
| Solymosi, Jozsef | Department of Mathematics | Additive Combinatorics, Discrete and Computational Geometry, Graph theory, and Combinatorial Number Theory |
| Song, Dongjoon | , | |
| Song, Liang | Department of Botany | Plant genomics; Environmental stresses; Seed development; Gene Expression |
| 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 |
| Sumaila, Ussif Rashid | Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs | Bioeconomics, marine ecosystem valuation and the analysis of global issues such as fisheries subsidies, IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing and the economics of high and deep seas fisheries |
| Summers, Alexander | Department of Computer Science | Programming languages and software engineering; programming languages; software engineering |
| Sun, Jim | Department of Microbiology & Immunology | |
| Sun, Chin | Natural sciences; I am a field ecologist by training,having studied behaviour and ecology of mammals and birds | |
| Sutherland, Danica | Department of Computer Science | |
| Suttle, Curtis | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Department of Botany, Department of Microbiology & Immunology | Bioinformatics; Fisheries sciences; Immunology; Microbiology; Oceanography; Plant biology; Biological Oceanography; Environmental Virology; Marine Environment; Marine Microbiology; Microbial Diversity; Phage; Viral Discovery; Viruses |
| Tanner, Martin | Department of Chemistry | Enzymes responsible for the biosynthesis of the sialic acids in mammals |
| Taylor, Eric | Department of Zoology | possible threats to native fish; native BC fish biodiversity; fish biology and conservation; evolution, Evolution and conservation of fishes |
| Tetzlaff, Wolfram | Department of Zoology | Neural development and regeneration |
| Thachuk, Mark | Department of Chemistry | Reaction dynamics, mathematical techniques, Chemical physics |
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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
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dr. Parada Torres developed two new methods to estimate distances to nearby galaxies by using evolved stars as calibrators. Besides measuring distances, her research helped identify systematic biases and uncertainties in current calibrations. These new methods will help improve the determination of the rate of expansion of the universe. | Doctor of Philosophy in Astronomy (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Morova's research presents a novel computational framework to study the impact of non-coding mutations on the development of prostate cancer. By using advanced functional genomics techniques, he worked to identify key mutations that affect the growth of the disease, which provided useful insight into the study of prostate cancer genetics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Saito developed statistical and machine learning tools for understanding the roles of nuclear physics in the production of the heaviest elements in the Universe, the so-called r-process. These developments connect the uncertainties of our understanding of the r-process and the properties of exotic nuclei. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Forbes tested how ecological communities are affected by rising temperatures and fragmented habitats. Her experiments help us understand how species respond to global change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Yu developed a series of analytical and bioinformatic methods for quantitative metabolomics using mass spectrometry. These novel tools assist us in understanding a wide range of biological questions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Wiesmann identified novel conserved mechanisms of bacterial association with plant and animal hosts, providing insights into how bacteria can protect against, or cause disease. This work ultimately aims to help in the development of novel therapeutics to prevent bacterial pathogenesis. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Huang studied the initiation and regulation of plant innate immunity with the model organism Arabidopsis. He identified an indispensable transcription factor that plays dual roles in plant defense signalling. His studies provide new insights into how plants activate the biosynthesis of defense hormones to prevent pathogen attack. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2023 | Hawaiian volcanoes are direct windows into the chemical composition of Earth's deep interior. Dr. Williamson's research on Hawaiian lavas revealed a change in mantle chemistry along the Hawaiian Islands about 5 million years ago. Her work provides new insight for tracking the distribution of chemical reservoirs in the Earth's mantle through time. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Loos investigated sustainable materials for oil spill remediation using gels. This research was conducted in collaboration with a local company, and is now being considered for commercialization. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Santos studied how pathogenic E. coli manipulates normal human intestinal cell functions. He found that E. coli modifies important human signalling proteins, allowing it to influence how cells behave throughout an infection. This research provides insight into the mechanisms E. coli uses to survive and thrive during infection. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |