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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

Computational Sciences and Mathematics

Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

Genomics and Biological Sciences

Human-Computer Interaction

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
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
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
Madison, Kirk Department of Physics & Astronomy Condensed matter, atomic, molecular and optical physics
Madzwamuse, Anotida Department of Mathematics
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
Mank, Judith Department of Zoology evolution; How selection acts on males and females within a species; How the genome responds to contradictory selection to encode sexually dimorphic traits; Sex chromosomes; Gene regulation; Sexual conflict
Marcus, Brian Harry Department of Mathematics Coding and information theory, symbolic dynamics, ergodic theory and dynamical systems
Marshall, Katie Department of Zoology Animal physiology, environmental stress; Environmental Change; Marine biodiversity; Population Ecology; invertebrates and temperature adaptation
Martin, Gregory Department of Mathematics Number theory, Diophantine Approximation and Classical Analysis
Martone, Patrick Department of Botany Plant biology; Protist; Plants; Physiology; Taxonomy and Systematics; Ecology and Quality of the Environment; Evolution and Phylogenesis; Biomaterials; Solid Mechanics; Fluid mechanics; biomechanics; Ecology; evolution; Intertidal Zone; Macroalgae; Phycology
Marziali, Andre Department of Physics & Astronomy Teaching methods, pedagogy, Robotics in education, Nanotechnology, Engineering Physics, Genomics, Biophysics, Genomics Technologies
Matsuuchi, Linda Department of Zoology Natural sciences; Cell Biology; Immunology
Matthews, Philip Department of Zoology Animal physiology, respiration; Insect biology; Animal physiology, biophysics; Comparative biomechanics; Animal physiological ecology; Comparative Physiology; biomechanics; Insect physiology; Respiratory Physiology
Matthews, Benjamin Department of Zoology Genomics; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Zoology; Aedes aeygpti mosquitoes; Arboviral pathogens; Chikungunya; Comparative Physiology; Dengue fever; Genome of mosquitoes; Yellow fever; Zika
Mattison, Thomas Department of Physics & Astronomy Subatomic physics, Particle & Nuclear Physics, Applied Physics
Mayer, Ulrich Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Geology; groundwater contamination; groundwater remediation; hydrogeology; low-temperature geochemistry; mine waste management
McAllister, Murdoch Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries Statistical methods for fisheries risk assessment, estimation, decision analysis and management strategy evaluation
McDonald, Daniel Department of Statistics High dimensional data analysis; Computational methods in statistics; Statistical theory and modeling; Machine learning; Epidemiology (except nutritional and veterinary epidemiology); Methods and models for epidemiological forecasting; Estimation and quantification of prediction risk; Evaluating the predictive abilities of complex dependent data; Application of statistical learning techniques to time series prediction problems; Investigations of cross-validation and the bootstrap for risk estimation
McDougall, Scott Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences Other earth and related environmental sciences, n.e.c.; Geotechnical engineering; Debris flows / floods; Geohazards; Landslide-generated waves; Landslides; Natural and man-made geological hazards; Rock avalanches; Shoreline erosion; Tailings dam breaches

Pages

Graduate Student Stories

Atlanta-Marinna Grant

Master of Arts in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (MA)

From food 'waste' to food 'cycle: biocultural heritage and the sharing of oral histories

Gabriel Currier

Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD)

Extremal combinatorics

Aditi Pradeep

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Direct dark matter search using the first SuperCDMS SNOLAB detector towers

Shaoxuan Ren

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Conversion of carbon dioxide into chemicals and fuels in a flow reactor

Rapichan Phurisamban

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

Relationalities and River Flows: Toward a Socially-Equitable and Bioculturally-Conscious Environmental Flow Management

Verónica Relaño-Ecija

Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)

Socio-ecological management in San Antonio Marine Protected Area (MPA), Argentina

Prerna Gupta

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

Nuclear risk perception in India: risk in the context of political debates and economic insecurities

Icíar Fernández Boyano

Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD)

Redefining preeclampsia in the placenta
All Student Stories

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.

 

Azimuthal Angle Correlations of Muons Produced via Heavy-Flavor Decays in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and pp Collisions with the ATLAS Detector
Publication: Physical review letters
UBC Author(s): Alison Lister (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 132
Page Range: 202301
Publication Date: 17 May 2024

View Publication
Delocalized, asynchronous, closed-loop discovery of organic laser emitters
Publication: Science (New York, N.Y.)
UBC Author(s): Jason Hein (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 384
Page Range: eadk9227
Publication Date: 17 May 2024

View Publication
Piperazate-Guided Isolation of Caveamides A and B, Cyclohexenylalanine-Containing Nonribosomal Peptides from a Cave Actinomycete
Publication: Organic Letters
UBC Author(s): Raymond Andersen (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science), Katherine Ryan (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15237060
Volume: 26
Page Range: 4127-4131
Publication Date: 17 May 2024

View Publication
Recent results and prospects of the NA62 experiment at CERN
Publication: Proceedings of Science
UBC Author(s): Douglas Bryman (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 455
Publication Date: 17 May 2024

View Publication
Peristaltic pumping down a porous conduit
Publication: Journal of Fluid Mechanics
UBC Author(s): Neil Balmforth (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00221120
Volume: 987
Publication Date: 17 May 2024

View Publication
Azimuthal Angle Correlations of Muons Produced via Heavy-Flavor Decays in 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb and pp Collisions with the ATLAS Detector
Publication: Physical Review Letters
UBC Author(s): Colin Gay (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00319007
Volume: 132
Publication Date: 17 May 2024

View Publication
Modelling daisy quorum drive: A short-term bridge across engineered fitness valleys
Publication: PLoS Genetics
UBC Author(s): Sarah Otto (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15537390
Volume: 20
Publication Date: 16 May 2024

View Publication
Applications of Natural Language Processing for Automated Clinical Data Analysis in Orthopaedics
Publication: The Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
UBC Author(s): Laks Lakshmanan (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 32
Page Range: 439-446
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
High-mobility carriers and superconductivity at the SrNbO3- SrTiO3 interface
Publication: Physical Review B
UBC Author(s): Ke Zou (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 24699950
Volume: 109
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
Vision-based seam tracking for GMAW fillet welding based on keypoint detection deep learning model
Publication: Journal of Manufacturing Processes
UBC Author(s): Kwang Moo Yi (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15266125
Volume: 117
Page Range: 315-328
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
Exposure to a winter photoperiod to produce large Atlantic salmon smolts (Salmo salar) increases energetic costs and reduces hypoxia tolerance during seawater transfer
Publication: Aquaculture
UBC Author(s): Colin Brauner (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00448486
Volume: 585
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
NANOGrav 15-year gravitational-wave background methods
Publication: Physical Review D
UBC Author(s): Ingrid Stairs (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 24700010
Volume: 109
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
Universal structure of measurement-induced information in many-body ground states
Publication: Physical Review B
UBC Author(s): Andrew Potter (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 24699950
Volume: 109
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
Fungal-derived adsorption membrane to capture potentially toxic elements
Publication: Chemical Engineering Journal
UBC Author(s): James Kronstad (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 13858947
Volume: 488
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
Transition from a hydrologically partitioned to an integrated lake in the Cretaceous Junggar Basin, Central Asia
Publication: Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
UBC Author(s): Joel Edward Saylor (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 13679120
Volume: 267
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
The spatiotemporal richness of hummingbird wing deformations
Publication: The Journal of experimental biology
UBC Author(s): Douglas Altshuler (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 227
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

View Publication
Warming temperatures exacerbate effects of microplastics in a widespread zooplankton species.
Publication: Environmental Pollution
UBC Author(s): Michelle Tseng (Botany / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 02697491
Volume: 349
Publication Date: 15 May 2024

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Single-cell approaches define two groups of mammalian oligodendrocyte precursor cells and their evolution over developmental time
Publication: Stem Cell Reports
UBC Author(s): Freda Miller (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 22136711
Volume: 19
Page Range: 654-672
Publication Date: 14 May 2024

View Publication
The potential importance of the built-environment microbiome and its impact on human health
Publication: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
UBC Author(s): Carolina Tropini (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science), B Brett Finlay (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 121
Publication Date: 14 May 2024

View Publication
Thermally Robust Solvent-Free Liquid Polyplexes for Heat-Shock Protection and Long-Term Room Temperature Storage of Therapeutic Nucleic Acids
Publication: Biomacromolecules
UBC Author(s): Anna Blakney (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 15257797
Volume: 25
Page Range: 2965-2972
Publication Date: 13 May 2024

View Publication
Debate Chatbots to Facilitate Critical Thinking on YouTube: Social Identity and Conversational Style Make A Difference
Publication: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
UBC Author(s): Dongwook Yoon (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Publication Date: 11 May 2024

View Publication
Exploring the Diminishing Allure of Paper and Low-Fidelity Prototyping Among Designers in the Sofware Industry: Impacts of Hybrid Work, Digital Tools, and Corporate Culture
Publication: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
UBC Author(s): Dongwook Yoon (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Publication Date: 11 May 2024

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HelpCall: Designing Informal Technology Assistance for Older Adults via Videoconferencing
Publication: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
UBC Author(s): Joanna McGrenere (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Publication Date: 11 May 2024

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Time-Turner: A Bichronous Learning Environment to Support Positive In-class Multitasking of Online Learners
Publication: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
UBC Author(s): Dongwook Yoon (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Publication Date: 11 May 2024

View Publication
LegacySphere: Facilitating Intergenerational Communication Through Perspective-Taking and Storytelling in Embodied VR
Publication: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings
UBC Author(s): Dongwook Yoon (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Publication Date: 11 May 2024

View Publication

Pages

Recent Thesis Submissions

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
2024 Dr. Suhail has made significant strides in computer vision by pioneering diverse methodologies that elevate semantic comprehension and geometric reasoning abilities within computer vision systems. His works have received nominations for Best Paper Awards, highlighting the substantial impact of his work in the field. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 The terrestrial plants possess a cuticle which comprises a mixture of ubiquitous waxes that have important physiological roles. Dr. Gozdzik investigated the cuticles of several plant species to infer biosynthetic mechanisms for non-ubiquitous specialty wax compounds which furthers the understanding of the roles and origins of those wax compounds. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2024 Dr. Banados Schwerter studied the formal requirements for detecting type inconsistencies in programming languages that combine static and dynamic type checking, and a novel reporting technique for these errors. His research will assist the design of new programming languages and help their future programmers to find and fix programming mistakes. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 Dr. Feng proposed an inexpensive method to reduce the amount of human labeling in the task of extracting relations from documents. He proposed a novel self-training method to improve the performance of text generation and relation extraction when few labeled data is used to train a machine learning model. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 Dr. He developed a self-supervised machine learning tool that minimizes the need for extensive human annotation, thereby alleviating the reliance on costly human labor during the machine learning development process. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2023 Dr. Huggins studied how microorganisms use nitrogen in low-oxygen marine waters. She found that, in some cases, nitrogen can be recycled faster than it is lost from the environment. Her work adds to our knowledge about the impacts of oxygen loss and climate change in the oceans. Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)
2023 Dr. Irwin studied how to use computers to solve noisy optimization problems, which are optimization problems where one cannot measure the quantity one wants to optimize exactly. He developed three new computer algorithms for solving noisy optimization problems, including an industrial problem encountered by makers of computer chips. Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Yin developed new methods to improve mass spectrometry based proteomic research. His work enabled more comprehensive and accurate measurement of proteins, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of the state of biological systems studied. The methods he developed has potential future applications in advancing disease diagnosis and therapeutics discovery. Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
2023 Dr. Jones developed and implemented phylogenetic methods to estimate integration dates of HIV proviruses. His findings have provided a better understanding of within-host HIV dynamics and is beneficial for HIV cure research. Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)
2023 Quite surprisingly, some quantum systems can encode gravitational physics in a higher dimensional space. Dr. Waddell used this fact to study a key quantum system arising in string theory, to show that information about a black hole's contents is not destroyed when it evaporates, and to propose a quantum description of universes similar to our own. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

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AI can tell if a patient battling cancer needs mental health support

Psychiatrists and computer scientists at UBC and BC Cancer have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) model that can accurately...

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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...

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How art can help us talk about the green transition

Elders, researchers and musicians are using art to get people talking about the challenges and opportunities of a transition to renewable...

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UBC adding 778 student spaces across technology and life sciences programs thanks to provincial investment

B.C.’s Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation, the Honourable Brenda Bailey, was on site at UBC’s Vancouver campus Friday to...

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Tropical coral-infecting parasites discovered in cold marine ecosystems

Parasites thought only to infect tropical coral reefs have been discovered in a large variety of creatures in cold marine ecosystems along...

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New gravitational wave signal helps fill the ‘mass gap’ between neutron stars and black holes

A collaboration of researchers including UBC scientists have observed gravitational waves from the collision of what is most likely a...

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