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...
Learn MoreApplicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
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.
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. Rubin studied the theoretical basis of the evolution and maintenance of diversity in ecological communities. Using mathematical models and numerical methods, he showed how competition between individuals can explain the diversity of the number of species found in ecosystems in the natural world. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Cormier developed a novel adversarial machine learning algorithm in order to detect particles with challenging signatures in the ATLAS detector. This research both furthered the combination of machine learning and particle physics, as well as led to world-leading limits on the possible existence of some theories beyond the standard model. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Littlejohn developed a murine model to study the impact of early-life exposure to multiple micronutrient deficiencies on host, gut microbiome and resistome. Her most significant finding was that early-life micronutrient deficiencies induced clinically relevant antibiotic resistance which has major policy implications for malnourished children. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. D'Acunha compared carbon and water fluxes from natural and managed ecosystems in Brazil. She found that the magnitude, seasonality and drivers of these fluxes change with biome, land use and management. Her research increases our understanding of tropical ecosystems, and helps inform policies for land management and climate change mitigation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. George studied bacterial symbionts of microbial eukaryotes and viruses of symbionts. Her work highlights the complex interactions between viruses and microbes from diverse environments and provides valuable insights into their evolution. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. MacLeod helped lead a team of scientists and engineers that built the world's first self-driving laboratory for optimizing thin-film materials. This autonomous robotic laboratory accelerates the development of new and improved materials for clean energy applications. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Shalev developed genomic resources for western redcedar and found low genetic diversity despite remarkable responsiveness to natural and artificial selection in this important tree species. These resources were used to find genomic areas associated with multiple traits of interest for the application of genomics to operational forestry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Genome Science and Technology (PhD) |
2022 | One of the biggest puzzles in modern physics is dark energy, which is causing the expansion of the universe to speed up. Dr. Höfer helped build the largest radio telescope in Canada named CHIME. To exploit the complex CHIME data, she developed advanced simulation and analysis techniques. Her results will have an impact on future radio surveys. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Kaur used a variety of computational approaches to assess a key question of why certain groups of species are more diverse than others. She found species interactions do not shape diversity uniformly, but they can drive diversity differences across the tree of life. Her work demonstrates the importance of methodology when studying interactions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2022 | Dr. Tong studied the nature of weak interactions using computational and spectroscopic methods. The research showed a better picture of weak interactions and their significance in petroleum-coke modification and pharmaceutical drug synthesis. This allows for a more appropriate utilization of such interactions in chemistry and biology. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |