UBC researcher wins 2020 Volvo Environment Prize
UBC conservation biologist Claire Kremen is this year's winner of the Volvo Environment Prize, recognizing her world-class research on how...
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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 40 per cent of the Faculty's graduate enrollments, and the percentage of international students has increased to 48 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
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | Probabilistic programming; Probabilistic programming systems; New models and inference algorithms; Computational neuroscience; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Probabilistic models; vision; Natural Language Processing; Robotics; Reinforcement learning |
| Wu, Lang | Department of Statistics | Biostatistics |
| Xiao, Robert | Department of Computer Science | human-computer interaction; Virtual/augmented reality |
| Ye, Ziliang | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Optics and Photonics; Nanomaterials |
| Yi, Kwang | Department of Computer Science | |
| 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 Science and Statistics; Design; Educational Technologies; Human-computer interaction (HCI); Multimodal interaction; Interaction and interface design; computer supported cooperative work (CSCW); Educational technology; Virtual Reality; Augmented reality; Speech, touch, multitouch, stylus, gesture, mixed-reality, 3d interaction |
| Young, Jeff | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Photonics, condensed matter physics, atomic, molecular, and optical physics, photonic crystals, nonlinear optics, spintronics |
| Zahl, Joshua | Department of Mathematics | Combinatorics and discrete mathematics; Lie groups, harmonic and Fourier analysis; Harmonic Analysis; Combinatorics; Discrete and Combinatorial Geometry |
| Zamar, Ruben | Department of Statistics | Data mining and text mining, Modeling data quality, Development of new robust procedures, Statistical computing, Bioinformatics |
| Zhang, Yuelin | Department of Botany | Plant biology; Plant immunity; Salicylic acid signaling; Systemic acquired resistance; ROS signaling; MAPK signaling; plant immune receptors |
| Zhao, Jiaying | Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability, Department of Psychology | Psychology - Biological Aspects; Environment and Society; Socio-Economic Conditions; Cognitive Science; Poverty; sustainability; Behavior Change; Public Policy |
| Zhitnitsky, Ariel | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Particle theory, cosmology, quantum chromodymics, hadrons, axion physics, physcs of neutron stars, inflation models, dark matter problem |
| Zhou, Fei | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Condensed matter and theoretical physics, Ultra Cold Atoms Near Resonances |
| Zou, Ke | Department of Physics & Astronomy | 2D crystals, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) synthesis, heterostructures, gated field effect transistors (FETs) |
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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Directional and 3-D confinement-dependent fracturing, strength and dilation mobilization in brittle rocks (Geological Engineering - PHD)
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Skinprobe 2.0 : development of a system for low-cost measurement of human soft tissues (Computer Science - MSC)
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Designing an eyes-reduced document skimming app for situational impairments (Computer Science - MSC)
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XSnare : application-specific, cross-site scripting protection (Computer Science - MSC)
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The role of the microenvironment and inflammation in the promotion of cancer metastasis (Microbiology and Immunology - MSC)
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Machine learning methods for metabolic pathway inference from genomic sequence information (Bioinformatics - PHD)
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Schedule data, not code (Computer Science - PHD)
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The functional diversity and evolution of nuclear processes (Botany - PHD)
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On the computational asymptotics of Gaussian variational inference (Statistics - MSC)
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The role of the MEK/ERK pathway in regulating cytoskeleton-dependent B cell responses to immobilized and cell-bound antigens (Microbiology and Immunology - MSC)
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Modulating the adhesive strength of blood clots by coagulation factor XIIIa-based technologies (Genome Science and Technology - PHD)
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Detection of enriched patterns in protein sequence data (Bioinformatics - MSC)
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Antimicrobial properties of Kisameet clay, a natural clay mineral from British Columbia, Canada (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
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Gelation of cellulose nanocrystals (Chemistry - PHD)
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Antimicrobial peptide host toxicity prediction with transfer learning for proteins (Bioinformatics - MSC)
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Interpolation, growth conditions, and stochastic gradient descent (Computer Science - MSC)
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Slice sampling for general completely random measures (Statistics - MSC)
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Terpene and isoprenoid biosynthesis in Cannabis sativa (Genome Science and Technology - PHD)
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Leveraging automation to elucidate reaction mechanisms (Chemistry - 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Oleaginous bacteria have considerable potential for the sustainable production of lipid-based chemicals. Dr. Round's research characterized and exploited lipid biosynthesis enzymes to create a biocatalyst. The work provides insight into bacterial lipid biosynthesis and facilitates the development of processes to sustainably produce oleochemicals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Nitta studied the regulation of signal transduction that occurs during plant immunity. Her work contributes to help uncover mechanisms which plants use to control the magnitude of defense responses. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Bernier investigated the nuclear structure of neutron-rich cadmium isotopes relevant to nuclear astrophysics using gamma-ray spectroscopy. Her work contributed to explain how the nuclear force holds atomic nuclei together and how heavy elements are created in stars. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Edwards developed new methods for using air and water sensitive catalysts for the synthesis of amines with minimal generation of waste. He has also used these methods to create new molecules that could have potential uses in the development of new pharmaceuticals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Brown studied the interaction between tumours and the immune system in thousands of cancer patients. He used computational genomics methods to make predictions about how immune cells may recognize and attack these tumours, relating this to patient outcomes. This work identified patients most likely to benefit from immunotherapies. | Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD) |
| 2019 | New understanding of space and time arises in the fundamental realization of the Universe. Dr. Yeh studied space as a pixel picture encoded in a set of matrices. He found how matrices reconstruct smooth spaces. His research contributes to revealing the origin of the Universe. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Starko explored how environmental conditions have shaped the evolutionary dynamics and ecological strategies of an important group of marine primary producers. His work spanned multiple spatial and temporal scales from large-scale patterns of evolution through deep time to the development of individual species. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Belliveau developed algorithms that produce three-dimensional images of the interior of the earth from remotely collected electrical and magnetic measurements. These images help scientists understand the Earth's interior. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Khazraie studied the electronic structure of bismuth oxides. He showed that holes form on oxygen ions in contradiction to the ideas of charge fluctuations in Bismuths. His work can create a new class of materials that can host coexisting electron and hole gasses and lead to the realization of excitonic insulators. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Sadek demonstrated novel uses of organofluoroborates as sources of fluorine for chemical reactions, and synthesized boron and fluorine containing fluorescent molecules with novel structures and properties. These works serve to expand the chemical reactivity of organofluoroborates as well as the development of potential tools for medical imaging. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |