UBC evolutionary biologist Dr. Dolph Schluter named AAAS Fellow
Internationally renowned evolutionary biologist Dr. Dolph Schluter has been elected to the newest class of American Association for the...
Learn MoreApplicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
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.
Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology
Computational Sciences and Mathematics
Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Genomics and Biological Sciences
Human-Computer Interaction
Life Sciences
Chemistry and Materials Science
Physics
Sustainability
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.
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.
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Science.
Year | Citation | Program |
---|---|---|
2012 | Dr. Johnson studied the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, the first plant to have a completely sequenced genome. He identified three neighbouring genes that play sequential roles in one of the plant's specialized metabolic pathways. This adds to our understanding of the evolution of these kinds of pathways in plants. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
2012 | Dr. Stephens explored the ecological bases underlying successful biological control of invasive weed species, particularly the rangeland weed, diffuse knapweed. Using a range of methods, she has advanced the understanding of how the characteristics of, and interactions among herbivorous insects, help to naturally control the spread of their host-plant. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2012 | Dr. FitzJohn has developed statistical methods to ask why there are more species in some groups of mammals than in others. Common explanations for this unevenness in biodiversity centre on the traits of the species concerned. His methods allow us to rigorously test long-standing hypotheses for differences in speciation and extinction rates. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2012 | Dr. Mistry examined gene expression patterns in the postmortem human brain. Using statistical methods, she looked at which genes are turned on and off in healthy brains compared to the brains of people with schizophrenia. Her findings contribute to our knowledge of gene function in the brain and offers insight into the underlying cause of schizophrenia. | Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD) |
2012 | Dr. Koo studied solutions to equations which model physical processes. Using analytic techniques, she proved results regarding the long-term behaviour of these solutions. These results can be applied to further our understanding of areas such as nonlinear optics, condensed matter physics and ferromagnetism. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
2012 | Topological insulators are materials which are insulating in the core but not on the surface. Dr. Rosenberg studied four exotic effects in three dimensional topological insulators. These materials were recently discovered and have been shown to be a new phase of matter. This research advances our basic understanding of this new class of materials. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2012 | Dr. Zlotorzynska studied the chemical behavior of oxygen and nitrogen radical atoms. She devised novel strategies to harness their high reactivity for use in selective carbon-oxygen and carbon-nitrogen bond forming reactions. This research led to the development of new chemical methods applicable to pharmacologically active compounds. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2012 | Dr. Hodge studied how magma, or melted rock, moves within underground magma chambers. She developed a technique to use features in solidified magma, or rocks, to understand how the magma moved prior to solidification. Her work explains how new injections of magma interact below volcanoes, affect magma chamber growth, and increase the potential for volcanic eruptions at the Earth's surface. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD) |
2012 | Dr. Bakhshaii used Gene Expression Programming to improve forecasts of precipitation and speed-up calculation of how atmospheric stability affects thunderstorms. She devised new forecast methods for electric load to enable more efficient operation of electric-power generation. Her innovation has been beneficial for meteorologists, hydrologists, the power industry and the general public. | Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Science (PhD) |
2012 | Dr. Shaikh conducted research on enzymes which remove the A and B antigens from red blood cells. Her work, in collaboration with research performed at the Blood Research Centre, has generated universal red blood cells. These studies contribute to the understanding of enzymes that are useful for the conversion of A/B/O blood types into universal blood. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |