Jerry Achar
Doctor of Philosophy in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (PhD)
Analyzing uncertainty in the application of computational in silico methods for chemical risk assessment
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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 |
---|---|---|
Dierker, Steve | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Physical sciences; Collective dynamics of condensed matter systems; Dependence on reduced dimensionality, strong interactions, disorder, and mesoscale structure |
Ding, Jiarui | Department of Computer Science | Bioinformatics; Basic medicine and life sciences; Computational Biology; Machine Learning; Probabilistic Deep Learning; single-cell genomics; visualization; Cancer biology; Computational Immunology; Food Allergy; neuroscience |
Dipple, Gregory | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | carbon sequestration, geologic fluid flow, mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions |
Doebeli, Michael Walter | Department of Mathematics, Department of Zoology | Mathematical ecology and evolution, evolution of diversity, adaptive speciation, evolution of cooperation, game theory, experimental evolution in microorganisms |
Eberhardt, Erik | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Geotechnical engineering; Mining engineering; Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering; Deep Underground Excavations; Rock Slope Engineering; Block Cave Mining |
Eltis, Lindsay | Department of Microbiology & Immunology | Biochemistry; Genomics; Immunology; Microbiology; Bacterial catabolism of steroids and lignin; biocatalyst development; Enzymes and Proteins; Metabolism (Living Organisms); Mycobacterium tuberculosis |
Evans, William | Department of Computer Science | Computer and information sciences; Algorithms; theoretical computer science; Computer Sciences and Mathematical Tools; computational geometry; graph drawing; program compression |
Fast, Naomi | Department of Botany | Genomics, single-celled organisms |
Feeley, Michael | Department of Computer Science | Distributed systems, operating systems, workstation and pc clusters |
Fernandez, Rachel | Department of Microbiology & Immunology | Bordetella pertusis, whooping cough, lipopolysaccharide |
Fink, Jonathan | , | |
Finlay, B Brett | Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology | Infectious agents, bacteria, microbial infections and how humans react to it |
Folk, Joshua | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Physical sciences; 2D materials and Vanderwaals heterostructures; Quantum electronics; Thermodynamics of quantum systems; Strongly correlated phenomena; Topological phenomena; Quantum transport |
Franz, Marcel | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Condensed matter theory |
Fraser, Ailana | Department of Mathematics | Differential Geometry, Geometric Analysis |
Friedlander, Michael | Department of Computer Science, Department of Mathematics | numerical optimization, numerical linear algebra, scientific computing, Scientific computing |
Friedman, Joel | Department of Computer Science | Computer and information sciences; Algebraic Graph Theory; Combinatorics; Computer Science Theory |
Gantois, Joséphine | Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability | Human Dimensions of Biodiversity Conservation |
Gao, Lucy | Department of Statistics | Statistics; Selective Inference; Inference x Unsupervised Learning; Statistics x Optimization |
Garcia, Ronald | Department of Computer Science | Programming languages; programming languages |
Garcia Lorenzo, Iria | , | |
Gates, Derek | Department of Chemistry | Inorganic chemistry, materials science, polymer chemistry, catalysis |
Gay, Colin | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Experimental subatomic physics, Beyond Standard Model physics, Extra dimensions |
Gaynor, Kaitlyn | Department of Zoology, Department of Botany | behavioral responses of animals to human presence; effects of anthropogenic disturbance on predator-prey and other species interactions; socio-ecological dynamics of conservation and coexistence |
Germain, Rachel | Department of Zoology | Ecology; 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 |
---|---|---|
2023 | Dr. Park's research focused on microbiome associated with seaweeds. He found that the ecological distribution of these host-associated microbes is linked to their positive impact on kelp growth and their ability to colonize kelp, as demonstrated through experimental tests. His work advances the application of ecological theory in probiotic discovery. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Pinsonneault-Marotte participated in the realisation of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment telescope and analysis, which resulted in a preliminary detection of hydrogen located nearly 11 billion light-years away. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Fomichev developed computational methods for predicting the properties of materials with strong electron-lattice interactions. Applying these methods to organic solar cell materials, he showed that lattice vibrations can break apart excitons to generate electricity, potentially explaining how this novel technology operates on an atomic scale. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Verma developed synthetic methods to access various pharmaceutically relevant building blocks. These developed one-pot methodologies can expedite the synthesis of a library of compounds thereby accelerating the early drug discovery programs and resulting in the rapid identification of new therapeutics for various diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Ghahramani developed new empirical and numerical methods for predicting the characteristics of tailings flows resulting from breaches of tailings dams. The findings of this study are useful for improving the accuracy of risk assessments and emergency response plans for tailings dam breaches. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Engineering (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Huang's research studies the region of the Solar System beyond Neptune. He explored how the plausible brief existence of an extra "rogue" planet in our early Solar System provides possible answers to some long-standing puzzles in the orbital structure of the distant Kuiper Belt of comets beyond Neptune. | Doctor of Philosophy in Astronomy (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Rogalla developed ocean models of the concentrations of the micronutrient manganese and the pollutant lead in Inuit Nunangat. These simulations highlight the importance of dirty sea ice for manganese in the Canada Basin, the extent of glacial and continental river water in this region, and the impact of lead pollution. | Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Munk studied scientific simulators, probabilistic models, and their stochastic inversion via probabilistic programming. His research has led to novel contributions to the field of probabilistic programming. These contributions may impact diverse disciplines, ranging from physics to finance. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Kellett examined how small changes to the chemical structure of molecules impact the rate of electron transfer reactions. These results help us understand how transient attractions between adjacent molecules can act as a conduit for electric charge and demonstrate how careful molecular design can control the electronic properties of a material. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Flynn developed statistical methods of using structured networks of data to estimate the size of hidden or hard-to-reach populations, and created corresponding software for these techniques to readily be used by researchers across diverse fields. These methods were used to illuminate the true scope of the opioid epidemic in British Columbia. | Doctor of Philosophy in Statistics (PhD) |