AI can tell if a patient battling cancer needs mental health support
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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
- Biodiversity Research Centre
- Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research
- Centre for Microbial Diversity and Evolution
Computational Sciences and Mathematics
- Data Science Institute
- Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems
- Institute of Applied Mathematics
- Statistical Consulting and Research Laboratory
- Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences
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
- Centre for Blood Research
- Centre for Microbial Diseases and Immunity Research
- Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health
- International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries
- Life Sciences Institute
- Michael Smith Laboratories
- Neglected Global Diseased Initiative
Chemistry and Materials Science
- Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory
- Max Planck-UBC Centre for Quantum Materials
- Quantum Devices Group
- Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute
Physics
- Antihydrogen Trapping and Spectroscopy at CERN
- Pacific Institute for Theoretical Physics
- TRIUMF: Canada’s National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics
- UBC ATLAS Project at Large Hadron Collider
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
Graduate Degree Programs
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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Dr. Hasselfield made measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Background to find distant clusters of galaxies. Counting galaxy clusters and measuring their mass tells us how in-homogeneous the matter distribution was in the very early Universe. This helps us to understand what physical phenomena were at play in the moments after the Big Bang. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Emmel conducted experimental research into the physics of TV and computer displays. He developed a new backlight with higher contrast, which is able to show more realistic images than current state-of-the-art displays. His research is an important step towards more realistic and energy-efficient displays. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Ghadermarzi's research was in the field of number theory. He completely solved two families of a special kind of Diophantine equation called the Thue equations and studied some applications of Thue equations. Thue equations arise in a wide variety of number theoretic contexts including recurrence sequences and integral points on elliptic curves. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Rajagopalan's research focused cloud computing, a pay-per-use hosted computing model for Internet applications. He designed systems to enhance the adaptability of cloud-based applications, enabling them to respond to load changes and infrastructure failures. His work will assist developers to build elastic and fault-tolerant cloud applications | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Telpoukhovskaia's research was in the field of medicinal inorganic chemistry. She worked on design and synthesis of novel compounds that are able to interact with biologically active copper, iron, and zinc. Furthermore, she tested these compounds in a biological setting to elucidate their potential activity in Alzheimer's disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Lee-Yaw studied geographic range limits and the processes influencing them in a widespread salamander species. Her work clarifies the relative importance of climate versus species interactions in shaping range limits. She illustrates a general framework for testing alternative hypotheses for range limits. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Simmons studied bulk-tonnage, low grade copper bearing rocks in southern Peru. This work resulted in the identification of magmatic controls on copper concentrations in the Earth's upper crust. The conclusions of this research contrast productive and non-productive copper bearing rocks and aid in the global search for additional copper resources. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Mashayekhi studied the physics of interacting ultra-cold quantum gases. The new framework he developed helped reveal how these systems are strongly driven by the interaction among a few particles. His work will help in devising techniques to unveil the secrets of fundamental physical phenomena, occurring on scales from sub-atomic to galactic | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Kalantari investigated the Magnetic Resonance (MR) properties of the human brain in vivo as well as the bovine brain in vitro. His findings helped to improve the accuracy of measuring myelin in the human central nervous system in vivo. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2014 | Dr. Comin investigated the physics of correlated oxide materials and the manifestation of charge localization as a hallmark of unconventional states of matter. This experimental work focused on the discovery of charge ordering in high-temperature superconducting copper-oxides and of novel relativistic insulating phases in iridium-based materials. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |