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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 |
|---|---|---|
| Waltham, Christopher | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Physical sciences; Musical Acoustics |
| Wang, Yan | Department of Chemistry | Quantum chemistry, Chemical physics |
| Ward, Michael Jeffrey | Department of Mathematics | Applied analysis, singular perturbations, reaction-diffusion theory, mathematical modeling and scientific compution, nonlinear dynamics and applied partial differential equations |
| Wasteneys, Geoff | Department of Botany | Plant biology; Cell signaling; Hormones and Growth Factors; Molecular Genetics; Cellulose Biosynthesis; Microtubule Dynamics and Organization; Plant Cell Walls in Cell Shape and Tissue Function; Plant Growth and Development; Plant Responses to Abiotic Stress; Trafficking of Membrane Receptors and Transporters |
| Waterman, Stephanie | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Atmospheric sciences; Oceanography; Arctic oceanography; geophysical fluid dynamics; Jets, eddies & scale interactions; Ocean dynamics; Oceanic processes; Scale interactions; Southern ocean dynamics; Western boundary current jets |
| Watson, Liam | Department of Mathematics | Topology; Low-dimensional topology; Khovanov homology; Heegaard Floer homology |
| Wei, Juncheng | Department of Mathematics | Differential equations and integral equations in pure mathematics; Partial and ordinary differential equations; Mathematics; Geometric analysis; Mathematical biology; Nonlinear partial differential equations; reaction-diffusion systems; singular perturbations and concentration phenomena; singularity formations in fluids; Nonlinear Analysis |
| Weis, Dominique | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Geology; Earth Structure and Composition; Geodynamics; Chemical Pollutants; Earth Sciences; Environmental geochemistry; Geochemistry; High-precision/sensitivity geochemical analyses; Indigenous studies; Oceanic islands and mantle plumes |
| Welch, William | Department of Statistics | , Design of experiments, experiments with computer models, data mining, drug discovery, quality improvement |
| Wetton, Brian | Department of Mathematics | Scientific computing, fluid mechanics |
| White, Rachel | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Atmospheric dynamics and thermodynamics; Climate modelling; Atmospheric dynamics; climate change; Extreme weather events; Climate impacts |
| Whitehead, Lorne | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Atomic, molecular, and optical physics; Education; Economics and business administration; Applied optics; Applied physics, especially novel geometrical approaches; Illuminating engineering and display technology; Optimizing innovation and enhancing learning within higher education |
| Whitlock, Michael | Department of Zoology | Evolutionary Genetics; Population Genetics |
| Whitton, Jeannette | Department of Botany | Speciation (evolutionary processes); Plant developmental and reproductive biology; Plant evolutionary ecology; Evolution of asexuality; Evolution and consequences of polyploidy; Speciation/ diversification; Species at risk in Canada; Conservation policy |
| Williams, Ben | Department of Mathematics | Topology; Algebra; Algebraic topology; Motivic homotopy theory; A1 homotopy theory |
| Withers, Stephen | Department of Chemistry | Enzymes and Proteins; Blood Substitutes; Organic Molecules and Biomolecules; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Diabetes; Drug development; enzyme inhibition; carbohydrates; glycobiology; metagenomics; directed evolution |
| Wolf, Michael | Department of Chemistry | materials chemistry; polymer light-emitting devices; chemical sensors; conductive polymers, Electronic or photonic polymers |
| Wood, Frank Donald | Department of Computer Science | Computer and information sciences; Artificial Intelligence; Computational neuroscience; Machine Learning; Natural Language Processing; New models and inference algorithms; Probabilistic models; Probabilistic programming; Probabilistic programming systems; Reinforcement learning; Robotics; vision |
| Wu, Lang | Department of Statistics | Biostatistical methods; Longitudinal data analysis, mixed effects models, missing data, hypothesis testing, biostatistics |
| Xiao, Robert | Department of Computer Science | human-computer interaction; Virtual/augmented reality |
| Ye, Ziliang | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Physical sciences; Nanomaterials; Optics and Photonics |
| Yi, Kwang Moo | Department of Computer Science | Computer vision in artificial intelligence; Pattern recognition and artificial vision; Computer Vision; Machine Learning; Visual Geometry; Astronomy; Biomedical imaging |
| Yilmaz, Ozgur | Department of Mathematics | Mathematical problems related to analog-to-digital conversion, blind source separation, sparse approximations and compressed sensing, and applications in seismic signal processing |
| Yoon, Dongwook | Department of Computer Science | Computer and information sciences; Computer Science and Statistics; design; Educational Technologies; Augmented reality; computer supported cooperative work (CSCW); Educational technology; Human-computer interaction (HCI); Interaction and interface design; Multimodal interaction; Speech, touch, multitouch, stylus, gesture, mixed-reality, 3d interaction; Virtual Reality |
| Zahl, Joshua | Department of Mathematics | Combinatorics and discrete mathematics; Lie groups, harmonic and Fourier analysis; Harmonic Analysis; Combinatorics; Discrete and Combinatorial Geometry |
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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Single cell profiling of the immune system landscape in Lyn deficiency and colorectal cancer (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
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Using light to investigate taste reward circuits in Drosophila (Zoology - PHD)
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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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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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Epigenetic dysregulation in lymphoid leukemias (Bioinformatics - PHD)
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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)
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 | Dr. Camacho showed that predation rates and the strength of mutualistic associations decrease with elevation in the New World tropics. His research teased apart possible mechanisms behind these patterns, which are likely ultimately linked between elevation and changes in temperature and productivity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Sonier examined the improvement of radiation therapy accuracy for cancer patients by adapting for patient-specific systematic soft tissue deformations in the planning and delivery of prostate, lung, and head and neck treatment plans. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Morrison examined how temperature affects the binding of oxygen by haemoglobin in warm-bodied fishes such as opah, swordfish, and common thresher shark. He found that the haemoglobin of these fish have lower sensitivity to temperature than most animals. This comparative study contributes to understanding the convergent evolution of haemoglobin. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2021 | The human intestine contains trillions of microbes. Dr. Huus studied how these intestinal bacteria respond to malnutrition, a serious global health issue. She found that malnourished gut bacteria change their metabolism and interact differently with the immune system. Understanding these differences may help to improve treatments for malnutrition. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Wamer studied novel forms of quantum magnetism that correspond to physical systems with a larger number of symmetries. He classified the phases of matter of these systems and deepened our understanding of a large family of theoretical models, whose applicability spans from material science to mathematical physics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Fu focused on the design of protein-based biomaterials at both molecular and macroscopic levels. Her research allows for precise control over the mechanical performance of protein-based hydrogels for a variety of applications, such as soft actuators, cartilage-like biomaterials, and artificial substrates for laboratory cell biology studies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Epifanov developed novel applications of sulfuryl fluoride, a common fumigant produced industrially on a multi-ton scale. The unique chemical properties of sulfuryl fluoride was used to render important transformations in organic synthesis to be more efficient and operationally simpler than existing methods. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Zolaktaf studied ways to improve the prediction of nucleic acid kinetics. This study provides more efficient computational methods for predicting nucleic acid kinetics and improving the underlying kinetic models for nucleic acids. Her contributions will make it easier to design nucleic-acid based devices, such as DNA robots. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. DiPucchio developed catalysts based on the element Tantalum to accelerate carbon-carbon bond-forming reactions. These resultant catalysts used ureate ligands and displayed reactivity that allowed for making new types of drug-inspired products. Her project has inspired a variety of current and future projects in the Schafer lab." | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2021 | Climate change is shifting the distribution of marine fish species that cross international borders. Dr. Palacios-Abrantes's research identified the impacts of climate change-induced shifts on transboundary fish stocks distributions and their management, thereby informing international fisheries governance to prepare and respond to climate change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |