
Sasha McDowell
Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)
Taste processing in Drosophila melanogaster
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.
Name | Academic Unit(s) | Research Interests |
---|---|---|
Marziali, Andre | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Teaching methods, pedagogy, Robotics in education, Nanotechnology, Engineering Physics, Genomics, Biophysics, Genomics Technologies |
Matsuuchi, Linda | Department of Zoology | Cell signaling of specific membrane receptors, combining aspects of Cell Biology, Immunology , Biochemistry and Molecular Biology |
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 |
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 |
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 | Debris flows / floods, Geohazards, Landslide-generated waves, Landslides, Natural and man-made geological hazards, Rock avalanches, Shoreline erosion, Tailings dam breaches |
McGrenere, Joanna | Department of Computer Science | Computer and information sciences; computer science; computer supported cooperative work (CSCW); human-computer interaction; interactive technologies for older users and people with cognitive disorders; personalized user interfaces; universal usability |
McIver, Jess | Department of Physics & Astronomy | General relativity and gravitational waves in astronomical and space sciences; Gravitational wave astrophysics; Multi-messenger astronomy; Characterization of large-scale physics instrumentation; data science |
McKenna, Janis | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Physical sciences |
Mehrkhodavandi, Parisa | Department of Chemistry | Chemical sciences; Inorganic and Organometallic Compounds; Polymers; Chemical Synthesis and Catalysis; Bio-based polymers; Bioproducts; catalysis; Green Chemistry; Inorganic and Organometallic Chemistry; Polymer Chemistry and Characterization |
Mehta, Aastha | Department of Computer Science | Networking, Security & Privacy, Systems security, Data privacy, Operating systems, Distributed systems |
Michal, Carl | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Soft condensed matter; Development and applications of spectroscopic and structural techniques; Solid-state NMR; NMR and MRI of brain tissue; NMR methods and instrumentation; Biological and functional materials |
Michaletz, Sean | Department of Botany | Plant physiological ecology; Plant biology; Surface processes; Natural hazards; Ecophysiology; Ecosystem ecology; climate change; macroecology; Geophysics; Scaling; Fire |
Miller, Freda | Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Medical Genetics | |
Milner, Valery | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics; Ultrafast Quantum Coherent Control; Ultrafast Spectroscopy |
Mitchell, Ian | Department of Computer Science | safety critical systems, assistive technology (mobility), robotics, scientific computing, cyber-physical systems, Mathematical software, computational science and engineering, hybrid and cyber-physical systems, verification and validation, reproducible research, level set methods, robotic path, planning |
Mizumoto, Kota | Department of Zoology | Cell and Developmental Biology |
Mohn, William | Department of Microbiology & Immunology | pollutant biodegradation, pollutant bioremediation, biological treatment of forest industry effluents and wastes, microbial ecology, environmental biotechnology, forest soil microbial ecology, tuberculosis, microbial genomics, Microbial ecology |
Momose, Takamasa | Department of Chemistry | Spectroscopy, Chemical physics |
Munzner, Tamara | Department of Computer Science | Human-centered computing; visualization; information visualization; visual analytics; data science |
Murphy, Michael | Department of Microbiology & Immunology | Bacteriology; Enzymes (including kinetics and mechanisms, and biocatalyst); Alternatives to antibiotics; Bacterial pathogenesis; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Functional and Structural Proteomics; Microbial metal metabolism |
Murphy, Gail | Department of Computer Science | Programming languages and software engineering; Software Development; knowledge worker productivity; software design; software engineering; software evolution |
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 |
---|---|---|
2022 | Dr. Wharton studied metal-based radioactive drugs for the diagnosis and therapy of cancer. His work led to the development of several radiopharmaceuticals which achieved effective imaging of tumours. His research deepens our understanding of viable approaches to drug design and has implications for the further advancement of cancer treatments. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Cristiani studied the movement of marine invertebrates among different areas of the British Columbia coast. His research modeled the spatial extent of animal dispersal and predicted where habitat is connected. This work is now being incorporated into planning the placement of marine protected areas to better conserve biodiversity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Baker studied metals in which electronic motion does not obey Ohm's law. He looked at metals where electrons develop preferred directions of motion because of strong interactions with the ionic lattice. He developed a theory of how this leads to new electrical and optical properties, and measured these novel effects in palladium cobalt oxide. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Ju developed prediction methods that go beyond classical settings. Her proposals are built upon the idea of ensemble learning and use data that contain extreme or function-valued variables. The resulting algorithms provide computational tools for practitioners to deal with complex data seen in various applications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Blain tested for predicted effects of competitive interactions among co-occurring fish phenotypes in post-glacial lakes. She demonstrated weak or no evidence for predictions from theory for selection and evolution in solitary stickleback populations and some evidence for habitat and trait repeatability in assemblages of sympatric salmonids. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Jung investigated the regulation of respiratory gases within the gastrointestinal tract and cardiovascular system in teleost. She also studied the potential implications associated with osmoregulation and digestion. Her research illuminates maintenance of blood homeostasis despite the extreme extracorporeal environment in the tract. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. DeLisle used quantum information theory to study electromagnetic and gravitational fields. His work argued that upcoming laboratory experiments should be capable of observing quantum superpositions of space-time, and resulted in the discovery of a new kind of electric current, responsible for emitting the longest wavelengths of light in Nature. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Christidis developed a new class of statistical algorithms designed to analyze data in high dimensions. He made theoretical and computational contributions to support his work. His methods were applied to study the relationship between genetic patterns and different types of diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Bruns examined the mechanisms of heat transport in carbon nanotubes at the atomic level. He showed that the small spatial dimensions of these materials require a rethinking of some fundamental laws of thermal science. His research improves our understanding of the thermal performance of some technologically important materials. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2022 | What happens when you fall into a black hole? Gravity predicts one answer, quantum mechanics another. Dr. Wakeham explored this problem, using an approach which combines quantum and gravitational effects, and in particular exploited surfaces called end-of-the-world branes to peer inside black holes and understand the fate of someone who falls in. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |