Faculty of Science

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.

Faculty Website

Fact Sheet

Mission

To nurture an exceptional scientific learning and research environment for the people of British Columbia, Canada, and the world.

633

Master's Students

(2019)
967

Doctoral Students

(2019)
350

Graduate Degrees Awarded

(2019)
452

Full-Time Faculty

(2019)
120.3

million in Research Awards

(2018/2019)

Research Centres

Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology

Computational Sciences and Mathematics

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

Chemistry and Materials Science

Physics

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

Department

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
Eberhardt, Erik	Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences	landslides, rockslides, tunnelling, mining, rock mechanics, geotechnical engineering, Rock Mechanics & Rock Engineering
Edelstein-Keshet, Leah	Department of Mathematics	Mathematics; Modelization and Simulation; Cell Signaling; Cell Signaling and Cancer; Differential Equation; cell polarity, cell migration, developmental and cellular biology; swarming and aggregation; Rho GTPases
Eltis, Lindsay	Department of Microbiology & Immunology	Microbiology; Enzymes and Proteins; Metabolism (Living Organisms); Bacterial catabolism of steroids and lignin; Mycobacterium tuberculosis; biocatalyst development
Evans, William	Department of Computer Science	Algorithms; Theoretical Computer Science; Computer Sciences and Mathematical Tools; theoretical computer science; computational geometry; graph drawing; program compression
Fast, Naomi	Department of Botany	Genomics, single-celled organisms
Feeley, Michael	Department of Computer Science	Distributed systems, operating systems, workstation and pc clusters
Fernandez, Rachel	Department of Microbiology & Immunology	Bordetella pertusis, whooping cough, lipopolysaccharide
Finlay, B Brett	Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Department of Microbiology & Immunology	Infectious agents, bacteria, microbial infections and how humans react to it
Folk, Joshua	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Quantum devices; Majorana fermions; Strongly correlated electronics; Topological phenomena; Fractional quantum Hall effect; Vanderwaals heterostructures
Francois, Roger	Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences	Marine Geochemistry, Climate Change
Franz, Marcel	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Condensed matter theory
Fraser, Ailana	Department of Mathematics	Differential Geometry, Geometric Analysis
Friedlander, Michael	Department of Computer Science, Department of Mathematics	numerical optimization, numerical linear algebra, scientific computing, Scientific computing
Friedman, Joel	Department of Computer Science	Computer Science Theory; Algebraic Graph Theory; Combinatorics
Froese, Richard Gerd	Department of Mathematics	Mathematics; Mathematical physics; quantum mechanics; spectral theory; scattering theory
Fryzuk, Michael	Department of Chemistry	energy; fuel cells; hydrogeny economy; nitrogen fixation, Metal, energy
Fu, Hu	Department of Computer Science	algorithmic game theory
Garcia, Ronald	Department of Computer Science	programming language semantics, design, and implementation, including language support for library-centric and modular software development, generic and generative programming, and domain specific languages and libraries.
Gates, Derek	Department of Chemistry	Inorganic chemistry, materials science, polymer chemistry, catalysis
Gay, Colin	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Experimental subatomic physics, Beyond Standard Model physics, Extra dimensions
Gaynor, Erin	Department of Microbiology & Immunology	Molecular mechanisms of pathogenesis, foodborne human pathogen, Campylobacter jejuni
Germain, Rachel	Department of Zoology	Ecology; evolution
Ghioca, Dragos	Department of Mathematics	Drinfeld modules, isotrivial semiabelian varieties, Lehmer inequality
Ghoussoub, Nassif	Department of Mathematics	Mathematical sciences, R&Ed policies, developing science in Africa, Non-linear analysis and partial differential equations
Giang, Amanda	Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability, Department of Mechanical Engineering	Atmospheric Pollutants; Climate Changes and Impacts; Chemical Pollutants; Social and Cultural Factors of Environmental Protection; Public Policies

Graduate Student Profiles

Isobel Mouat

Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)

Teaching science beyond content: introducing what science is and how it is done to first-year students

Raphael Roccor

Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)

Spinning Straw into Golden Liquids – Making High-value Oils from Biomass Residues

Dacotah-Victoria Splichalova

Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (PhD)

Narratives of Water: Exploring Hydrosocial Relations and Water (In)security in Canada and New Zealand

Eric Press

Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)

Modular optic flow processing during natural locomotion

Félix Cormier

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Search for long-lived particles with the ATLAS Experiment

Joseph Zsombor-Pindera

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Exploring the electronic structure and reactivity of transition metal complexes of redox non-innocent ligands through spectroscopy and computational chemistry

Sam Anderson

Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD)

Climate change impacts on municipal water supply in Western Canada

Hayden Scheiber

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Exploration of Crystal Nucleation Phenomena Through Molecular Simulation

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.

Corrigendum for “Evolutionary links between intra- and extracellular acid–base regulation in fish and other aquatic animals” (Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology, (2020), 333, 6, (449-465), 10.1002/jez.2367)

Publication: Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology
UBC Author(s): Colin Brauner (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 24715638
Volume: 333
Page Range: 607
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Author Correction: Detection of renal cell carcinoma using plasma and urine cell-free DNA methylomes (Nature Medicine, (2020), 26, 7, (1041-1043), 10.1038/s41591-020-0933-1)

Publication: Nature Medicine
UBC Author(s): Keegan Korthauer (Statistics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10788956
Volume: 26
Page Range: 1663
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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On the Perils of Ignoring Evolution in Networks

Publication: Trends in Ecology and Evolution
UBC Author(s): Diane Srivastava (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01695347
Volume: 35
Page Range: 865-866
Publication Date: October 2020

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Low-cost low-field NMR and MRI: Instrumentation and applications

Publication: Journal of Magnetic Resonance
UBC Author(s): Carl Michal (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10907807
Volume: 319
Publication Date: October 2020

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Modelling spatiotemporal trends in range shifts of marine commercial fish species driven by climate change surrounding the Antarctic Peninsula

Publication: Science of the Total Environment
UBC Author(s): Wai Lung Cheung (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00489697
Volume: 737
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Passive immunotherapies targeting Aβ and tau in Alzheimer's disease

Publication: Neurobiology of Disease
UBC Author(s): Steven Plotkin (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09699961
Volume: 144
Publication Date: October 2020

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Columbia spotted frogs (Rana luteiventris) have characteristic skin microbiota that may be shaped by cutaneous skin peptides and the environment

Publication: FEMS microbiology ecology
UBC Author(s): Laura Parfrey (Botany / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 96
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Flexible copula models with dynamic dependence and application to financial data

Publication: Econometrics and Statistics
UBC Author(s): Harry Sue Wah Joe (Statistics / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 16
Page Range: 148-167
Publication Date: October 2020

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Identification of local water resource vulnerability to rapid deglaciation in Alberta

Publication: Nature Climate Change
UBC Author(s): Valentina Radic (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 1758678X
Volume: 10
Page Range: 933-938
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Strategies and support for Black, Indigenous, and people of colour in ecology and evolutionary biology

Publication: Nature Ecology and Evolution
UBC Author(s): Michelle Tseng (Botany / Faculty of Science), Diane Srivastava (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 4
Page Range: 1288-1290
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Water sharing and the right to water: Refusal, rebellion and everyday resistance

Publication: Political Geography
UBC Author(s): Leila Harris (Institute for Resources,Environment & Sustainability / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09626298
Volume: 82
Publication Date: October 2020

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A bi-organellar phylogenomic study of Pandanales: inference of higher-order relationships and unusual rate-variation patterns

Publication: Cladistics
UBC Author(s): Sean Graham (Botany / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 07483007
Volume: 36
Page Range: 481-504
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Flag manifold sigma models from SU(n) chains

Publication: Nuclear Physics B
UBC Author(s): Ian Keith Affleck (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 05503213
Volume: 959
Publication Date: October 2020

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Ectomycorrhizal fungi induce systemic resistance against insects on a nonmycorrhizal plant in a CERK1-dependent manner

Publication: New Phytologist
UBC Author(s): Cara Haney (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0028646X
Volume: 228
Page Range: 728-740
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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A perfectly inelastic collision: Bulk prey engulfment by baleen whales and dynamical implications for the world's largest cetaceans

Publication: American Journal of Physics
UBC Author(s): Robert Edward Shadwick (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00029505
Volume: 88
Page Range: 851-863
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Correlating Cochlear Morphometrics from Parnell’s Mustached Bat (Pteronotus parnellii) with Hearing

Publication: JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology
UBC Author(s): Robert Edward Shadwick (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15253961
Volume: 21
Page Range: 425-444
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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A meta-analysis of global avian survival across species and latitude

Publication: Ecology Letters
UBC Author(s): Jill Jankowski (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 1461023X
Volume: 23
Page Range: 1537-1549
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Evolutionary impacts of winter climate change on insects

Publication: Current Opinion in Insect Science
UBC Author(s): Katie Marshall (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 22145745
Volume: 41
Page Range: 54-62
Publication Date: October 2020

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COVID-19 provides an opportunity to advance a sustainable UK fisheries policy in a post-Brexit brave new world

Publication: Marine Policy
UBC Author(s): Daniel Pauly (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0308597X
Volume: 120
Publication Date: October 2020

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Release of geogenic uranium and arsenic results in water-quality impacts in a subarctic permafrost region of granitic and metamorphic geology

Publication: Journal of Geochemical Exploration
UBC Author(s): Roger Beckie (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science), Ulrich Mayer (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 03756742
Volume: 217
Publication Date: October 2020

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On the length of chains in a metric space

Publication: Journal of Functional Analysis
UBC Author(s): Mathav Murugan (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00221236
Volume: 279
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Bubbling solutions for the Liouville equation with a singular source: Non-simple blow-up

Publication: Journal of Functional Analysis
UBC Author(s): Juncheng Wei (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00221236
Volume: 279
Publication Date: 1 October 2020

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Fishery biomass trends of exploited fish populations in marine ecoregions, climatic zones and ocean basins

Publication: Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science
UBC Author(s): Daniel Pauly (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 02727714
Volume: 243
Publication Date: 30 September 2020

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Regional debris-flow and debris-flood frequency–magnitude relationships

Publication: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
UBC Author(s): Scott McDougall (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01979337
Volume: 45
Page Range: 2954-2964
Publication Date: 30 September 2020

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The ice-nucleating activity of Arctic sea surface microlayer samples and marine algal cultures

Publication: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
UBC Author(s): Allan Bertram (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 16807316
Volume: 20
Page Range: 11089-11117
Publication Date: 29 September 2020

View Publication

Recent Thesis Submissions

Directional and 3-D confinement-dependent fracturing, strength and dilation mobilization in brittle rocks (Geological Engineering - PHD)
Numerical methods in quantum chemistry to accelerate SCF convergence and calculate partial atomic charges (Chemistry - PHD)
Dynamic pH junction focusing and isoelectric focusing in capillary electrophoresis mass spectrometry (Chemistry - PHD)
Transition metal-containing Brønsted acids as single component cationic initiators for olefin polymerization (Chemistry - MSC)
Elucidating the biosynthesis of polyketides accumulating in barley (Hordeum vulgare) cuticular wax (Chemistry - MSC)
Skinprobe 2.0 : development of a system for low-cost measurement of human soft tissues (Computer Science - MSC)
Learning through exploration : how children, adults, and older adults interact with a new feature-rich application (Computer Science - MSC)
Designing an eyes-reduced document skimming app for situational impairments (Computer Science - MSC)
XSnare : application-specific, cross-site scripting protection (Computer Science - MSC)
The role of the microenvironment and inflammation in the promotion of cancer metastasis (Microbiology and Immunology - MSC)
Machine learning methods for metabolic pathway inference from genomic sequence information (Bioinformatics - PHD)
Schedule data, not code (Computer Science - PHD)
A framework for joint petrophysically and geologically guided geophysical inversion (Geophysics - PHD)
The functional diversity and evolution of nuclear processes (Botany - PHD)
Unidentified falling objects in the Large Hadron Collider : formation, charging mechanisms and dynamics of dust particulates in a high energy proton accelerator (Physics - MSC)
On the computational asymptotics of Gaussian variational inference (Statistics - MSC)
What is Corallina officinalis var. chilensis? An examination of nomenclature, biogeography, phylogeny, and morphology (Botany - MSC)
The role of the MEK/ERK pathway in regulating cytoskeleton-dependent B cell responses to immobilized and cell-bound antigens (Microbiology and Immunology - MSC)
Zooplankton trace metal accumulation in the Strait of Georgia : trends, sources and insights (Oceanography - MSC)
Bicyclic octapeptide alpha-Amanitin, the death cap mushroom toxin : the total synthesis and derivatives of the hydroxyproline residue (Chemistry - PHD)
Modulating the adhesive strength of blood clots by coagulation factor XIIIa-based technologies (Genome Science and Technology - PHD)
Detection of enriched patterns in protein sequence data (Bioinformatics - MSC)
Elucidating the role of COBRA in plant development in Arabidopsis thaliana (Botany - MSC)
Antimicrobial properties of Kisameet clay, a natural clay mineral from British Columbia, Canada (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
Gelation of cellulose nanocrystals (Chemistry - PHD)
Antimicrobial peptide host toxicity prediction with transfer learning for proteins (Bioinformatics - MSC)
Interpolation, growth conditions, and stochastic gradient descent (Computer Science - MSC)
Slice sampling for general completely random measures (Statistics - MSC)
Terpene and isoprenoid biosynthesis in Cannabis sativa (Genome Science and Technology - PHD)
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
2020	Dr. Oyinlola studied the effects of climate change on global seafood production. His findings show that increasing greenhouse gases will negatively affect mariculture production in many regions of the world, particularly the tropics and sub-tropical regions. This research supports continuous mariculture related research and industry applications.	Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)
2020	Dr. Lix studied and improved a new type of ultrabright fluorescent probe called polymer dots that are used in bioanalysis and imaging. She investigated how these materials interact with other fluorescent materials. Her research will be used to develop new technologies that will enable medical diagnosis at the point-of-care.	Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2020	Dr. Wu studied the signaling transduction pathways in plant immunity. His work revealed novel regulatory mechanisms governing the activation of plant immune receptors, which may contribute to the engineering of broad-spectrum resistance in crops.	Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)
2020	Dr. Babanezhad's research explored optimizing parameters for machine learning algorithms, like those used in data processing, focusing specifically on computational cost. His proposed method, which he has tested on a new set of constraints and machine learning models, can train models in less time and achieve better results than previous methods.	Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2020	Dr. Paudel studied two key aspects of plant-virus interaction: how viruses coerce plants to produce viral products and how the plant defends itself. He identified regions in the viral genome that help in hijacking the host resources. Also, his results showed a variety of host antiviral defenses and highlighted the complexity of the interaction.	Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)
2020	Dr. Yeo examined the fundamental chemistry of early and late transition metal complexes. She studied the reactivity of early transition metal dinitrogen complexes and synthesized novel late transition metal complexes, exploring the capability of these chemical systems to provide insight for future advances in synthetic chemistry.	Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2020	Dr. Chen studied numerical algorithms for stiff elastodynamic simulation, a key procedure in computer graphics applications. He developed models for natural physical movements that would maintain stability and produce lively simulations at a lower cost. This work will improve the efficiency and accuracy for physically-based computer simulation.	Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2020	Dr. Xu's research explored the interactions between light and new synthetic molecules. These interactions include chemical changes such as photochromism or physical changes such as thermally activated delayed fluorescence and phosphorescence. This work will impact applications such as super-resolution imaging and display technology.	Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2020	Dr. McMillan developed and applied sophisticated geochemical approaches to stakeholder- and Indigenous-led investigations of archaeological biominerals and mineraloids, encompassing a large span of human history on two continents. The resulting techniques and data provided key information for addressing modern questions about the human journey.	Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD)
2020	Dr. Hao investigated Ti-catalyzed hydroamination, a powerful tool in the synthesis of various nitrogen-containing compounds. He used this complex to transform simple starting materials into complex nitrogen containing products, which can be used in new chemical reactions to make important commercial products like drugs and herbicides.	Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)