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 |
---|---|---|
2011 | Alkenes, such as ethylene or styrene, serve as chemical building blocks for everything from medicines to plastics. In studying phosphorus-containing analogues of alkenes, Dr Bates has discovered unexpected reactivity and developed several new classes of phosphorus compounds | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2011 | Dr Micko examined and defined the geological architecture of the Central Zone alkalic copper-gold porphyry deposit Galore Creek district in northwestern British Columbia. Based on in-depth mineralogical and geochemical studies, she was able to develop an evolutionary model for the deposit and subsequently provide new exploration tools for the mining industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
2011 | Dr. Dugal-Tessier designed and synthesized an unprecedented class of chiral ligands based on the phosphaalkene motif. He also showed the practical utility of these ligands by obtaining high selectivities in an organic transformation. His research could fill an important gap in ligand design with applications ranging from the polymer to the pharmaceutical industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2011 | Dr Slobodov investigated the consequences of dimensionally reducing space-times with rotational symmetry. This is a useful technique for simplifying a variety of problems in general relativity, including the numerical simulation of head-on black hole collisions. He found that reduced space-times tend to have singularities, negative energy and faster-than-light matter flows, complicating numerical simulations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2011 | Dr Peng provided direct experimental evidence for the kinetic partitioning mechanism for mechanical folding and unfolding processes of proteins, and made the first direct experimental observation of the tug-of-war during the folding of a mutually exclusive protein. These studies will help to elucidate the protein folding mechanism. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2011 | Dr. Shelswell studied movement in bacterial cells on solid surfaces. He described the first evidence of motility without a flagellum in a large class of bacteria, and showed how bacteria respond as a coordinated group to signals in their surroundings. This research improves our understanding off bacterial cell activity in our environment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
2011 | Dr. Roy developed new synthetic techniques to fabricate and process nanomaterials composed of metal atoms bridged by organic linkers. By designing molecular building blocks that self-assemble in solution, Dr. Roy was able to prepare metal-organic coordination polymers with previously inaccessible nanostructures and compositions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2011 | Dr. Kuchison investigated the optical and electronic properties of new metal complexes with conjugated ligands. The metal-conjugated material interactions in these complexes provide valuable knowledge of hybrid materials and insight towards their potential applications in chemical sensing and light-harvesting. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2011 | Dr. Malecki elucidated the mysterious way in which quantum interference influences the magnetic screening of semiconductor quantum dots at low temperatures. The insights provided by this work will prove invaluable in the development of new nanotechnological devices with possible applications in the burgeoning field of quantum healing. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2011 | Dr. Rehaume analyzed the genomic complexity and expression in mice of intestinal defensins, which are peptides involved in innate defences in the gut, and developed a murine model of intestinal inflammation. These studies strengthen our understanding of the murine defensin repertoire and enable studies of intestinal immunity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |