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 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 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 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
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
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 Software domains (including operating systems and software infrastructure); Information privacy; security & privacy; Systems security; networking; Operating systems; Data privacy; 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
Murugan, Mathav Department of Mathematics Probability theory; Metric and fractal geometry; Differential equations and integral equations in pure mathematics; Metric geometry; potential theory; probability theory and analysis; quasiconformal mappings; Relationship between Markov processes and the geometry of the underlying state space; Quasisymmetric Uniformization; Analysis and diffusions on fractals
Ng, Raymond Tak-Yan Department of Computer Science Data mining and analysis, health informatics, text summarization, text mining
Nichols, Eva Department of Chemistry Inorganic catalysis and reaction mechanisms; carbon dioxide reduction; electrocatalysis; bioinspired catalyst designs; molecularly-modified materials; molecular mechanisms; self-assembled monolayers; operando spectroscopy
Nolde, Natalia Department of Statistics Statistics; Statistics and Probabilities; Applications in finance, insurance, geosciences; Multivariate extreme value theory; Risk assessment

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Graduate Student Stories

Herringer Paul's image

Paul Herringer

Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)

Classifying computational phases of quantum matter in 2D and 3D
Borch Annie's image

Annie Borch

Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD)

The history and impact of volcanism and glacial systems on landscape evolution in the Garibaldi Volcanic Belt, BC

Amy Forsythe

Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)

Ecological and evolutionary consequences of individual heterogeneity

Ryoga Hojo

Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)

Deep blue thermally activated delayed fluorescence: Unlocking their potential as energy transfer visible light photocatalysts

Elise Legarth

Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Science (PhD)

Development of an improved methodology for estimating probable maximum precipitation and flood: Tested and validated in British Columbia watersheds.

Christopher Lee

Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD)

Investigating tryptophan and lipid metabolism in the human fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans

Alan Knee

Doctor of Philosophy in Astronomy (PhD)

Gravitational waves from eccentric binaries with LIGO and LISA

Davi de Ferreyro Monticelli

Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Science (PhD)

Cannabis cultivation facilities: Linking emissions and air quality to inform regulation
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.

 

Proteomics and personalized PDX models identify treatment for a progressive malignancy within an actionable timeframe
Publication: EMBO molecular medicine
UBC Author(s): Martin Hirst (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 17
Page Range: 625-644
Publication Date: 1 April 2025

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Targeted isolation of piperazate-containing molecules: bioinformatics and spectroscopy
Publication: Current Opinion in Microbiology
UBC Author(s): Raymond Andersen (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 13695274
Volume: 84
Publication Date: April 2025

View Publication
Use of theories of human action in recent conservation research
Publication: Conservation Biology
UBC Author(s): Kai Chan (Institute for Resources,Environment & Sustainability / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 08888892
Volume: 39
Publication Date: April 2025

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First detection of a tagged neutrino in the NA62 experiment
Publication: Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
UBC Author(s): Douglas Bryman (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 03702693
Volume: 863
Publication Date: April 2025

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EFFECTIVE ISOTRIVIAL MORDELL-LANG IN POSITIVE CHARACTERISTIC
Publication: American Journal of Mathematics
UBC Author(s): Dragos Ghioca (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00029327
Volume: 147
Page Range: 279-328
Publication Date: April 2025

View Publication
Impacts of severity and region of gill tissue resection on regeneration in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)
Publication: Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology -Part A : Molecular and Integrative Physiology
UBC Author(s): Colin Brauner (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10956433
Volume: 302
Publication Date: April 2025

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Measurement of the response function of the PIENU calorimeter
Publication: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment
UBC Author(s): Douglas Bryman (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 01689002
Volume: 1073
Publication Date: April 2025

View Publication
Correction to: Governance and resilience as entry points for transforming food systems in the countdown to 2030 (Nature Food, (2025), 6, 1, (105-116), 10.1038/s43016-024-01109-4)
Publication: Nature Food
UBC Author(s): Ussif Rashid Sumaila (Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 6
Page Range: 410-411
Publication Date: April 2025

View Publication
On the Orbit of the Binary Brown Dwarf Companion GL229 Ba and Bb
Publication: Astronomical Journal
UBC Author(s): Trevor Campbell (Statistics / Faculty of Science), Alexandre Bouchard-Cote (Statistics / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00046256
Volume: 169
Publication Date: 1 April 2025

View Publication
Maturational Stage-Dependent Contributions of the Cav3.2 T-Type Calcium Channel to Dentate Gyrus Granule Cell Excitability
Publication: eNeuro
UBC Author(s): Terrance Preston Snutch (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 12
Publication Date: 1 April 2025

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Mitochondrial respiration capacity impacts gill tissue regeneration in Atlantic salmon
Publication: Journal of Experimental Biology
UBC Author(s): Colin Brauner (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00220949
Volume: 228
Publication Date: April 2025

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LC-MS-based metabolomics for detecting adulteration in Tribulus terrestris-derived dietary supplements
Publication: Food Chemistry: X
UBC Author(s): Tao Huan (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 27
Publication Date: April 2025

View Publication
Clinical translation of microbiome research
Publication: Nature Medicine
UBC Author(s): Carolina Tropini (Microbiology & Immunology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 10788956
Volume: 31
Page Range: 1099-1113
Publication Date: April 2025

View Publication
Thunderstorm prediction over Eastern state of India during pre-monsoon season in 2018 using artificial neural network model
Publication: Theoretical and Applied Climatology
UBC Author(s): Laks Lakshmanan (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 0177798X
Volume: 156
Publication Date: April 2025

View Publication
Machine learning configuration-dependent friction tensors in Langevin heatbaths
Publication: Machine Learning: Science and Technology
UBC Author(s): Christoph Ortner (Mathematics / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 6
Publication Date: 31 March 2025

View Publication
DPack: Efficiency-Oriented Privacy Budget Scheduling
Publication: EuroSys 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 20th European Conference on Computer Systems
UBC Author(s): Mathias Lecuyer (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Page Range: 1194-1209
Publication Date: 30 March 2025

View Publication
Ladon: High-Performance Multi-BFT Consensus via Dynamic Global Ordering
Publication: EuroSys 2025 - Proceedings of the 2025 20th European Conference on Computer Systems
UBC Author(s): Ivan Beschastnikh (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Page Range: 226-242
Publication Date: 30 March 2025

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Velosiraptor: Code Synthesis for Memory Translation
Publication: International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems - ASPLOS
UBC Author(s): Reto Achermann (Computer Science / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 2
Page Range: 1365-1381
Publication Date: 30 March 2025

View Publication
Search for Dark Matter Produced in Association with a Dark Higgs Boson in the (Formula presented) Final State Using (Formula presented) Collisions at (Formula presented) with the ATLAS Detector
Publication: Physical Review Letters
UBC Author(s): Colin Gay (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00319007
Volume: 134
Publication Date: 28 March 2025

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Search for Dark Matter Produced in Association with a Dark Higgs Boson in the bb[over ¯] Final State Using pp Collisions at sqrt[s]=13  TeV with the ATLAS Detector
Publication: Physical review letters
UBC Author(s): Alison Lister (Physics & Astronomy / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 134
Page Range: 121801
Publication Date: 28 March 2025

View Publication
Lipid-siRNA Organization Modulates the Intracellular Dynamics of Lipid Nanoparticles
Publication: Journal of the American Chemical Society
UBC Author(s): Sabrina Leslie (Michael Smith Labs / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00027863
Volume: 147
Page Range: 10430-10445
Publication Date: 26 March 2025

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Spatiotemporal trends of aerosol provenance and trace metal concentrations in the northeast subarctic Pacific Ocean
Publication: Science of the Total Environment
UBC Author(s): Allan Bertram (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00489697
Volume: 971
Publication Date: 25 March 2025

View Publication
Polymorphic transposable elements contribute to variation in recombination landscapes
Publication: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
UBC Author(s): Kevin Wei (Zoology / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00278424
Volume: 122
Publication Date: 25 March 2025

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Examining cellular heterogeneity in human DNA methylation studies: Overview and recommendations
Publication: STAR Protocols
UBC Author(s): Keegan Korthauer (Statistics / Faculty of Science)
Volume: 6
Publication Date: 21 March 2025

View Publication
An EIS study of the heterogeneity of redox labeled DNA SAMs on gold before and after hybridization
Publication: Electrochimica Acta
UBC Author(s): Dan Bizzotto (Chemistry / Faculty of Science)
ISSN: 00134686
Volume: 517
Publication Date: 20 March 2025

View Publication

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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. Shaheen studied how the twisting of DNA can cause local changes in its structure and developed methods to assist in these studies. Such studies can help us fully understand how our genes are regulated, and may have implications in treating diseases such as cancer. Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Sanches Portella studied how to predict the future and keep secrets, mathematically speaking. He developed new online prediction algorithms and novel results on the limits of privacy-preserving data analysis. His findings may lead to more efficient optimization procedures and stronger cost-benefit analyses for private statistical estimation. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 Dr. Littel studied earthquakes in various regions of western British Columbia to learn more about the tectonics and earthquake source processes of these areas. Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Zarkoob used various AI techniques to design peer grading systems that incentivize truthfulness and accurately aggregate grades, a novel reviewer-paper matching approach to improve review quality and resource efficiency, and developed a web-based participation tool to encourage active participation from students of diverse demographics. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 Dr. Li identified the genes and biosynthetic regulations that drive the development of the specialized plant cell types that synthesize and store the myrosinase enzyme catabolizing glucosinolates. These findings provide the foundation for exploring mustard-oil-bomb systems in other crucifer plants, especially for economically important Canola crop in Canada. Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD)
2024 Dr. Billy investigated the genetic diversity of intestinal eukaryotes and their interactions with the mammalian host and the microbiome. He showed that the eukaryote Blastocystis alters the intestinal microbiome and could be beneficial for their host. His results encourage investigating further the protective effect of intestinal eukaryotes as treatment against intestinal disorders. Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)
2024 Dr. Rogy studied how the nutrient content of organisms could explain the flow of energy through food in ecosystems. Results showed that although nutrients play an important role, they are one of several factors driving energy flow. This study furthers our understanding of ecosystem dynamics to better care for our environment. Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD)
2024 Dr. Tanzila has significantly advanced machine learning by developing multimodal neural networks that can understand images and videos at a high level, even with limited data. Her research focuses on teaching machine learning models to perceive the world through multiple senses, similar to how humans do. She has also contributed to multimodal generative models to address data ambiguity. Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
2024 Dr. Hafezqorani developed computational tools to characterize, simulate, and analyze RNA-sequencing data using machine learning techniques. His research provides high-throughput solutions to study RNA and transcriptome. These contributions provide essential resources for future advancements in biological and medical research. Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)
2024 Dr. Radaeva advanced the fight against cancer by using computer-aided drug discovery to develop inhibitors targeting difficult-to-drug protein-nucleic acid interactions. Her research expands the possibilities for treating cancers driven by previously inaccessible proteins. Doctor of Philosophy in Bioinformatics (PhD)

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