Baraa Orabi
Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD)
Design and complexity analysis of novel algorithms for annotation-independent detection of transcriptomic alternative splicing Isoforms using long-read sequencing
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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 |
---|---|---|
Matthews, Philip | Department of Zoology | Animal physiology, respiration; Insect biology; Animal physiology, biophysics; Comparative biomechanics; Animal physiological ecology; Comparative Physiology; biomechanics; Insect physiology; Respiratory Physiology |
Matthews, Benjamin | Department of Zoology | Genomics; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Zoology; Aedes aeygpti mosquitoes; Arboviral pathogens; Chikungunya; Comparative Physiology; Dengue fever; Genome of mosquitoes; Yellow fever; Zika |
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 | Networking, Security & Privacy, Systems security, Data privacy, Operating systems, 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 | Mathematics and statistics; boundary theory; Metric geometry; potential theory; probability theory and analysis; quasiconformal mappings; relationship between behavior of Markov processes and the geometry of the underlying state space; Sandpile models |
Ng, Raymond Tak-yan | Department of Computer Science | Data mining and analysis, health informatics, text summarization, text mining |
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. Somo investigated the adaptation of aerobic capacity in fish in the intertidal environment. Focusing on the effects of oxygen, temperature, and body size, these studies illuminate how marine organisms in this environment have evolved to thrive under harsh, variable conditions, with lessons for how species might fare under climate change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Poisson has investigated various uses of surface-initated polymerization techniques to solve current challenges in organic optoelectronics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Ao studied plant immune receptors - molecular tools that plants use to recognize and defend against pathogens. He characterized two genes that enable fine-tuned immune responses. These findings not only deepen our understanding of how plants activate defense in the face of threats, but also contribute to the engineering of crop protection. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Gatz-Miller investigated the biogeochemical and physical relationship between soil, water, and plants using reactive transport numerical modelling. Dr. Gatz-Miller's work highlights the benefit of strategic complexity in numerical modelling to explore these nonlinear, interrelated, and diverse processes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Xu studied how plant fungal pathogens cause diseases. She innovatively established a fast gene discovery pipeline and identified many genes required for the full virulence of the fungal pathogen. In the future, these genes can be targeted to develop new fungicides and provide efficient and long-lasting plant protection. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Eremondi developed the theory of gradual dependently typed programming languages. Under this paradigm, programmers can use types to write correctness specifications, but can smoothly migrate the checking of those specifications between compile time and run time. This furthers the goal of making it easier to prove that software is free of errors. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Jeworrek advanced computational and statistical methods to make high-resolution precipitation forecasts more skillful, reliable, and efficient. Her work focused on BC's coastal and mountainous regions and can be used to improve water-resource management and flood risk mitigation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Science (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Egoriti developed new particle accelerator targets and diagnostics that improve the quality and quantity of radioisotopes produced at TRIUMF, Canada's particle accelerator center. This work has enabled new scientific experiments that previously failed, and improved key metrics allowing for quicker and more effective research activities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Shin researched titanium-based oxide thin films, with distinct properties for advanced electronic devices. Using molecular beam epitaxy, he grew these films and analyzed their electrical and magnetic traits through electrical transport and x-ray spectroscopy. These findings enhance comprehension of oxide films in cutting-edge electronics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
2023 | Dr. Gupta's thesis presents ways to improve the physical robustness of fluorescent polymer nanoparticles or "Pdots". It contributes to a better understanding of how their fluorescence properties degrade, and demonstrates that the brightness of Pdots is ideal for enabling smartphone-based diagnostic technologies for prospective applications in health care. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |