Shaoxuan Ren
Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD)
Conversion of carbon dioxide into chemicals and fuels in a flow reactor
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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 |
---|---|---|
Leslie, Sabrina | Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Physics & Astronomy | |
Leyton-Brown, Kevin | Department of Computer Science | Computer and information sciences; Artificial Intelligence; Algorithms; theoretical computer science; Resource Allocation; Computer Science and Statistics; Auction theory; game theory; Machine Learning |
Li, Yue-Xian | Department of Mathematics | Calcium signalling in neuroendocrine cells Fertilization calcium waves in oocytes |
Li, Hongbin | Department of Chemistry | Biophysical chemistry, biomaterials, single molecule studies, biological, atomic force, polymer chemistry |
Li, Xin | Michael Smith Laboratories, Department of Botany | Molecules in plants, plants defence against pathogen infection, plant genes |
Lister, Alison | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Particle physics, experimental; Large Hadron Collier (LHC); ATLAS experiment; Search for physics beyond the standard model; top quarks; dark matter; Machine Learning; Long-lived particles |
Lloyd, Samantha | Medical physics; Automation in external beam and brachytherapy treatment planning and delivery; Application of optical surface guidance for radiation therapy setup and motion monitoring; Machine learning for cancer outcomes prediction; Systems design for safety and quality control; Clinical trials | |
Loewen, Philip | Department of Mathematics | Mathematical optimization; Calculus of Variations; Optimal Control; optimization; Machine Learning |
Lukes, Laura | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Earth and related environmental sciences; Psychology and cognitive sciences; Education; Geoscience Education Research (Discipline-Based Education Research); Self-regulated Learning; field-based experiential learning; learning in informal settings (e.g., museums, parks, science centers); crowdsourced and citizen science; teacher beliefs; motivation, emotion, and beliefs in learning; Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in STEM; learning engineering |
MacDonald, Colin | Department of Mathematics | List of publications; The Closest Point Method: a new method for PDEs on surfaces; Time-stepping for PDEs: constructing Runge-Kutta methods, strong-stability-preserving methods (visit the SSP Site); WENO spatial discretizations; The Predicted Sequential Regularization Method; List of talks and presentations. |
MacFarlane, Andrew | Department of Chemistry | Chemical physics, Electronic and magnetic properties of crystalline solids, especially strongly correlated materials such as the cuprate high temperature superconductors |
MacLachlan, Mark | Department of Chemistry | Supramolecular inorganic chemistry; Inorganic materials; Supramolecular organic chemistry; Synthesis of materials; Functional materials in materials chemistry sciences; Supramolecular Chemistry; Nanomaterials; Biomaterials; Cellulose nanocrystals; Chitin; Materials Chemistry; Inorganic Chemistry |
MacLean, Karon | Department of Computer Science | Computer and information sciences; Information Systems; design of user interfaces; haptic interfaces; human-computer interaction; human-robot interaction |
Maddison, Wayne | Department of Zoology, Department of Botany | Arachnology, Biodiversity, Spiders, Phylogenetic Theory and Programming |
Madison, Kirk | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Condensed matter, atomic, molecular and optical physics |
Madzwamuse, Anotida | Department of Mathematics | |
Maldonado, Maite | Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences | Phytoplankton Trace Metal Physiology |
Man, Allison | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Cosmology and extragalactic astronomy; galaxy formation and evolution |
Mank, Judith | Department of Zoology | evolution; How selection acts on males and females within a species; How the genome responds to contradictory selection to encode sexually dimorphic traits; Sex chromosomes; Gene regulation; Sexual conflict |
Marcus, Brian Harry | Department of Mathematics | Coding and information theory, symbolic dynamics, ergodic theory and dynamical systems |
Marshall, Katie | Department of Zoology | Animal physiology, environmental stress; Environmental Change; Marine biodiversity; Population Ecology; invertebrates and temperature adaptation |
Martin, Gregory | Department of Mathematics | Number theory, Diophantine Approximation and Classical Analysis |
Martone, Patrick | Department of Botany | Plant biology; Protist; Plants; Physiology; Taxonomy and Systematics; Ecology and Quality of the Environment; Evolution and Phylogenesis; Biomaterials; Solid Mechanics; Fluid mechanics; biomechanics; Ecology; evolution; Intertidal Zone; Macroalgae; Phycology |
Marziali, Andre | Department of Physics & Astronomy | Teaching methods, pedagogy, Robotics in education, Nanotechnology, Engineering Physics, Genomics, Biophysics, Genomics Technologies |
Matsuuchi, Linda | Department of Zoology | Natural sciences; Cell Biology; Immunology |
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. Aina developed new computer-based methods for engineering vaccines to treat brain diseases. He showed that the methods are effective for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease in computer models, making them valuable in drug development. His findings benefit those with brain diseases, as well as researchers and the pharmaceutical industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Lawrence unified elements from reinforcement learning and control theory to solve industrially relevant problems. His framework enables learning stable control policies directly from data. This ensures that maintaining controllers in an industrial setting is efficient, safe, and automated. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Rowell studied explosive volcanic eruptions that interact with glaciers, lakes, and oceans, using both computer models and machine learning analysis of ash plumes in thermal camera imagery. He predicted how the behaviour, hazards, and climate impacts of eruptions evolve as they interact with increasingly greater volumes of water and ice. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Mowbray developed materials for electrochemical reactors that convert carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into chemicals and fuels. His thesis informs how to design and fabricate reactor materials that improve the efficiency of converting carbon dioxide into commodity chemicals using electricity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Zhuang developed the first inhibitors of tubulin glycylation initiase and elongase and developed inhibitors of type I isopentenyl diphosphate isomerase. These inhibitors will be very useful tools in studying the structure and mechanism of these enzymes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Yan's research focuses on a quantum computer architecture built upon photonic and spin qubits in silicon. Dr. Yan has developed a universal fault-tolerant architecture with practical implementation, as well as specific operational procedures that increase the quantum information fault-tolerant threshold. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Christensen developed autonomous, self-optimizing robotic systems to guide chemical process optimization in high experimental throughput. These robotic systems were applied to the human intervention-free optimization of processes for the chemical syntheses of two pharmaceutically relevant compounds. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Ren investigated heterogeneous ice nucleation by computational simulations and laboratory experiments. Her work demonstrated how atmospherically relevant ice nucleating particles can be influenced by ions and pH conditions. These results improve our understanding of how environmental conditions affect ice formation in the atmosphere. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Zhang investigated fundamental steps in Platinum catalyzed reactions. He focused on mechanism understandings and new reaction discoveries. A better understanding of fundamental steps in catalytic cycles helps scientists develop efficient and inexpensive industrial processes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | The simulation of frictional contact is a challenging problem in computer graphics. Dr. Larionov developed methods to accurately simulate friction between objects with smooth surfaces and showed where current methods fail. This work pushed the boundaries of acceptable friction behaviour in graphics, and opened promising avenues for future research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |