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 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.

Faculty Website

Fact Sheet

Mission

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

771

Master's Students

(2021)
1000

Doctoral Students

(2021)
435

Graduate Degrees Awarded

(2021)
434

Full-Time Faculty

(2021)
128

million in Research Awards

(2020/2021)

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

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

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
Kunst, Ljerka	Department of Botany	Seed storage oil production, biosynthesis
Laba, Izabella	Department of Mathematics	Harmonic analysis, geometric measure theory and additive combinatorics
Lakshmanan, Laks	Department of Computer Science	data management and data cleaning; data warehousing and OLAP; data and text mining; analytics on big graphs and news; social networks and media; recommender systems
Leander, Brian	Department of Botany, Department of Zoology	Plant biology; Zoology; Comparative organismal biology; Evolutionary morphology; Evolutionary protistology; Marine biodiversity; Marine invertebrate zoology; Phylogenetic biology; Species discovery
Lecuyer, Mathias	Department of Computer Science	Machine learning systems; Guarantees of robustness, privacy, and security
Leitch, Duncan	Department of Zoology	understanding sensory system adaptations in diverse organisms; contributions of nervous system properties to natural behaviours
Lerner, Jackie
Leslie, Sabrina	Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Leyton-Brown, Kevin	Department of Computer Science	Computer and information sciences; Artificial Intelligence; Algorithms; theoretical computer science; Resource Allocation; Computer Science and Statistics; Auction theory; game theory; Machine Learning
Li, Hongbin	Department of Chemistry	Biophysical chemistry, biomaterials, single molecule studies, biological, atomic force, polymer chemistry
Li, Yue-Xian	Department of Mathematics	Calcium signalling in neuroendocrine cells Fertilization calcium waves in oocytes
Li, Xin	Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Botany	Molecules in plants, plants defence against pathogen infection, plant genes
Lister, Alison	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Particle physics, experimental; Large Hadron Collier (LHC); ATLAS experiment; Search for physics beyond the standard model; top quarks; dark matter; Machine Learning; Long-lived particles
Little, James	Department of Computer Science	Artificial intelligence, computational vision, geographic information systems, robotics
Lloyd, Samantha
Loewen, Philip	Department of Mathematics	Mathematical optimization; Calculus of Variations; Optimal Control; optimization; Machine Learning
Lukes, Laura	Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences	Earth and related environmental sciences; Psychology and cognitive sciences; Education; Geoscience Education Research (Discipline-Based Education Research); Self-regulated Learning; field-based experiential learning; learning in informal settings (e.g., museums, parks, science centers); crowdsourced and citizen science; teacher beliefs; motivation, emotion, and beliefs in learning; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in STEM; learning engineering
MacDonald, Colin	Department of Mathematics	List of publications; The Closest Point Method: a new method for PDEs on surfaces; Time-stepping for PDEs: constructing Runge-Kutta methods, strong-stability-preserving methods (visit the SSP Site); WENO spatial discretizations; The Predicted Sequential Regularization Method; List of talks and presentations.
MacFarlane, Andrew	Department of Chemistry	Chemical physics, Electronic and magnetic properties of crystalline solids, especially strongly correlated materials such as the cuprate high temperature superconductors
MacLachlan, Mark	Department of Chemistry	Supramolecular inorganic chemistry; Inorganic materials; Supramolecular organic chemistry; Synthesis of materials; Functional materials in materials chemistry sciences; Supramolecular Chemistry; Nanomaterials; Biomaterials; Cellulose nanocrystals; Chitin; Materials Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry
MacLean, Karon	Department of Computer Science	Computer and information sciences; Information Systems; design of user interfaces; haptic interfaces; human-computer interaction; human-robot interaction
Maddison, Wayne	Department of Zoology, Department of Botany	Arachnology, Biodiversity, Spiders, Phylogenetic Theory and Programming
Madison, Kirk	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Condensed matter, atomic, molecular and optical physics
Maldonado, Maite	Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences	Phytoplankton Trace Metal Physiology
Man, Allison	Department of Physics & Astronomy	Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy; galaxy formation and evolution

Graduate Student Stories

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

Seyed Amirhossein Nasseri

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Towards a new class of Antibiotics

Ethan White

Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)

Framework rigidity

Julia Huggins

Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)

Oxygen loss in our oceans and the environmental impacts of marine microorganisms

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.

The P-T-t-D evolution of the Mahabharat, east-central Nepal: The out-of-sequence development of the Himalaya

Publication: Geoscience Frontiers
UBC Author(s): Matthijs Smit (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 16749871
Volume: 13
Publication Date: March 2022

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A Constraint on Primordial B-modes from the First Flight of the Spider Balloon-borne Telescope

Publication: Astrophysical Journal
UBC Author(s): Mark Halpern (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0004637X
Volume: 927
Publication Date: 1 March 2022

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Bicep/Keck XV: The B icep3 Cosmic Microwave Background Polarimeter and the First Three-year Data Set

Publication: Astrophysical Journal
UBC Author(s): Mark Halpern (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0004637X
Volume: 927
Publication Date: 1 March 2022

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A fractional memory-efficient approach for online continuous-time influence maximization

Publication: VLDB Journal
UBC Author(s): Laks Lakshmanan (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10668888
Volume: 31
Page Range: 403-429
Publication Date: March 2022

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The global rise of crustacean fisheries

Publication: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment
UBC Author(s): Wai Lung Cheung (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15409295
Volume: 20
Page Range: 102-110
Publication Date: March 2022

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Presentation of antigen on extracellular vesicles using transmembrane domains from viral glycoproteins for enhanced immunogenicity

Publication: Journal of Extracellular Vesicles
UBC Author(s): Anna Blakney (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 11
Publication Date: March 2022

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Post-prandial respiratory gas and acid-base profiles in the gastrointestinal tract and its venous drainage in freshwater rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and seawater English sole (Parophrys vetulus)

Publication: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology -Part A : Molecular and Integrative Physiology
UBC Author(s): Colin Brauner (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10956433
Volume: 265
Publication Date: March 2022

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On the Local Pressure Expansion for the Navier–Stokes Equations

Publication: Journal of Mathematical Fluid Mechanics
UBC Author(s): Tai-Peng Tsai (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 14226928
Volume: 24
Publication Date: March 2022

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Gradient domain machine learning with composite kernels: Improving the accuracy of PES and force fields for large molecules

Publication: Machine Learning: Science and Technology
UBC Author(s): Roman Krems (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 3
Publication Date: March 2022

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JPA: Joint Metabolic Feature Extraction Increases the Depth of Chemical Coverage for LC-MS-Based Metabolomics and Exposomics

Publication: Metabolites
UBC Author(s): Tao Huan (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 12
Publication Date: March 2022

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Infrasonic, Acoustic and Seismic Waves Produced by the Axion Quark Nuggets

Publication: Symmetry
UBC Author(s): Ariel Zhitnitsky (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 14
Publication Date: March 2022

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A Deterministic Algorithm for the Capacity of Finite-State Channels

Publication: IEEE Transactions on Information Theory
UBC Author(s): Brian Harry Marcus (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00189448
Volume: 68
Page Range: 1465-1479
Publication Date: 1 March 2022

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Assessing Trade-Offs and Optimal Ranges of Density for Life Expectancy and 12 Causes of Mortality in Metro Vancouver, Canada, 1990–2016

Publication: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
UBC Author(s): Paul Gustafson (Statistics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 16617827
Volume: 19
Publication Date: March-1 2022

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Analytical nanoscience

Publication: The Analyst
UBC Author(s): Walter Algar (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 147
Page Range: 765-766
Publication Date: 28 February 2022

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A β -NMR study of the depth, temperature, and molecular-weight dependence of secondary dynamics in polystyrene: Entropy-enthalpy compensation and dynamic gradients near the free surface

Publication: Journal of Chemical Physics
UBC Author(s): William Andrew MacFarlane (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00219606
Volume: 156
Publication Date: 28 February 2022

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A single-cell Arabidopsis root atlas reveals developmental trajectories in wild-type and cell identity mutants

Publication: Developmental cell
UBC Author(s): Geoffrey Schiebinger (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 57
Page Range: 543-560
Publication Date: 28 February 2022

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An imidazoacridine-based TADF material as an effective organic photosensitizer for visible-light-promoted [2 + 2] cycloaddition

Publication: Chemical Science
UBC Author(s): Zachary Hudson (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 20416520
Volume: 13
Page Range: 2296-2302
Publication Date: 28 February 2022

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Comparison of Imine- and Phosphinimine-Supported Indium Complexes: Tuning the Reactivity for the Sequential and Simultaneous Copolymerization of Lactide and ϵ-Caprolactone

Publication: Inorganic Chemistry
UBC Author(s): Parisa Mehrkhodavandi (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00201669
Volume: 61
Page Range: 3763-3773
Publication Date: 28 February 2022

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Poly(Lactide)-Modified Lignin Nanofibers: Investigating the Role of Polymer Tacticity on Fiber Properties and Filtration Efficiency

Publication: ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering
UBC Author(s): Parisa Mehrkhodavandi (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 10
Page Range: 2772-2783
Publication Date: 28 February 2022

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A pH-powered mechanochemical engine regulates the buoyancy of Chaoborus midge larvae

Publication: Current Biology
UBC Author(s): Philip Matthews (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 09609822
Volume: 32
Page Range: 927-933.e5
Publication Date: 28 February 2022

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On Single-Cell Enzyme Assays in Marine Microbial Ecology and Biogeochemistry

Publication: Frontiers in Marine Science
UBC Author(s): Steven Hallam (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 9
Publication Date: 25 February 2022

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Guiding Target Synthesis with Statistical Modeling Tools: A Case Study in Organocatalysis

Publication: Organic Letters
UBC Author(s): Jolene Reid (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15237060
Volume: 24
Page Range: 1429-1433
Publication Date: 25 February 2022

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The biogeography of community assembly: latitude and predation drive variation in community trait distribution in a guild of epifaunal crustaceans

Publication: Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
UBC Author(s): Mary O'Connor (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 289
Page Range: 20211762
Publication Date: 23 February 2022

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Multiresponsive Cyclometalated Crown Ether Bearing a Platinum(II) Metal Center

Publication: Inorganic Chemistry
UBC Author(s): Mark MacLachlan (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00201669
Volume: 61
Page Range: 2999-3006
Publication Date: 21 February 2022

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A large-scale study on research code quality and execution

Publication: Scientific data
UBC Author(s): Thomas Pasquier (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 9
Page Range: 60
Publication Date: 21 February 2022

View Publication

Recent Thesis Submissions

Control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection by the macrophage Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
Control of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection by the macrophage Glycogen Synthase Kinase-3 : [supplementary material] (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
Transcriptomic responses of the marine heterotrophic bacterium Dokdonia sp. strain Dokd-P16 to iron limitation and viral lysate addition (Oceanography - PHD)
FASTR : fast approximation of soft tissue in real time (Computer Science - MSC)
Ufit : interactive attribute driven sewing pattern adjustment (Computer Science - MSC)
Using light to investigate taste reward circuits in Drosophila (Zoology - PHD)
Quantitative analysis of small-molecule biomarkers by capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (Chemistry - PHD)
Salphen and hemi-salphen macrocycles for host-guest chemistry and other supramolecular applications (Chemistry - PHD)
Androgen receptor N-terminal domain antagonists : synthesis, SAR, and animal studies (Chemistry - MSC)
Antibiofilm coatings with long-term activity for medical devices (Chemistry - PHD)
Characterization of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii ammonium insensitive mutants (Botany - MSC)
Structural and mechanistic studies on the biosynthesis of streptozocin (Chemistry - MSC)
Applications of titanium-catalyzed hydroamination towards the syntheses of electron rich materials (Chemistry - MSC)
Investigation of L-type calcium channels as potential targets for cancer therapy (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
Lipid A modifications in Bordetella pertussis : regulation and function of the lgm locus (Microbiology and Immunology - PHD)
Epigenetic dysregulation in lymphoid leukemias (Bioinformatics - PHD)
An examination of post-translational regulation of immunity utilising reverse genetic techniques (Botany - PHD)
Regulation of the pattern-recognition receptor signaling in Arabidopsis : lessons from sobir7-1 and MC2 (Botany - PHD)
Self-assembled materials based on cellulose nanocrystals and graphene oxide (Chemistry - PHD)
Design and development of macromolecular polyanion inhibitors (MPIs) and their evaluation as therapeutics to prevent or treat thrombosis (Chemistry - PHD)
Red luminescent polymer nanoparticles : synthesis and applications in sensing and bioimaging (Chemistry - PHD)
Molecular mechanism of a novel nuclear entry pathway used by the parvovirus minute virus of mice (Zoology - PHD)
SpatialSort : characterizing cellular heterogeneity in the tumour microenvironment with spatially aware clustering (Bioinformatics - MSC)
Catalytic synthetic designs of aminated polyolefins with tunable dynamic interactions and material applications (Chemistry - PHD)
Photofunctional molecular crystals (Chemistry - PHD)
Investigation of diazeniumdiolate formation by the fragin biosynthesis pathway in Burkholderia cenocepacia h111 (Genome Science and Technology - MSC)
The diversity, evolution and virus-derived small interfering RNAs of arthropod-associated RNA viruses (Oceanography - PHD)
Numerical methods in quantum chemistry to accelerate SCF convergence and calculate partial atomic charges (Chemistry - PHD)
Supramolecular chemistry of palladium and platinum-containing macrocycles : from ring-expansion to host-guest complexes (Chemistry - PHD)
Exploring extreme limits of chemical bonding and their applications in functional materials designs (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
2021	Dr. Janzen systematically studied the establishment of a replicative niche by Salmonella bacteria within host cells. Her findings set a new paradigm for future Salmonella research and demonstrated the necessity of a wholistic view of Salmonella-host interactions to illuminate the poorly understood Salmonella replicative niche.	Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)
2021	Dr. Kostelnik studied new radioactive drugs for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. He found a number of compounds that form highly stable bonds with radioactive metals. These studies assist in the development of optimal radiopharmaceuticals for a wide range of diseases.	Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2021	Dr. Zhan studied the impact of genome doubling on the evolution of organisms. He found that genome doubling frequently coincides with the formation of new species but does not necessarily improve the evolutionary success of eukaryotic organisms. His work has helped to understand the role of genome doubling in shaping the biodiversity on Earth.	Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)
2021	Dr. Livingston studied the cell biology of cannabis glandular trichomes, which are tiny structures that produce cannabinoids such as THC and CBD. His work revealed how the trichomes develop, and how the plant cells can produce and store cannabinoids. His work provides a molecular roadmap for cannabis production in a growing Canadian industry.	Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)
2021	Poor data collection protocols can severely bias statistical methods. Dr. Watson developed elementary space-time statistical methodologies for detecting and mitigating sampling bias. He applied his work to tackle issues in the fields of public health and endangered species conservation.	Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD)
2021	Nowadays, there is a growing concern over the potentially catastrophic effects of climate change. Dr. Rodriguez-Arelis' research has used statistical computer experiments to simulate complex natural phenomena and engineering processes. These tools have improved the prediction accuracy of different systemic responses such as hurricane hazards.	Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD)
2021	Dr. Montenegro Alonso studied a specific small protein that is secreted by the smut fungus when it infects barley. She revealed its timing of expression, localization in the plant and the role it plays in weakening the plant defenses. These findings can be used to better understand plant-fungal interactions and to develop resistant crop varieties.	Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)
2021	Dr. Horianopoulos characterized the roles of heat shock proteins in the disease-causing fungus Cryptococcus neoformans, focusing on the family of co-chaperone proteins containing the J domain. She identified proteins that allow this fungus to grow at human body temperature and adapt to the human host environment in order to establish infection.	Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)
2021	Dr. Chun studied deadly paediatric cancers called rhabdoid tumours using sophisticated DNA sequencing and computational tools. She revealed diverse molecular characteristics of these cancers and discovered that a subset of tumours had more immune activities than others, thus revealing the potential use of immunotherapy for rhabdoid tumour patients.	Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)
2021	Many of the artificial-intelligence-powered products that we use daily rely on a family of methods called "deep learning"'. Dr. Shafaei presented solutions that enable a broader and safer application of these techniques. He also introduced a new application of deep learning for automated portrait editing that produces high-quality images.	Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)