Currently Open Research Projects
| Position Title | Supervisor(s) | Faculty | Research Classification |
|---|---|---|---|
| PhD Opportunity - Solar Driven Carbon Dioxide Capture and Conversion | Alex Tavasoli | Faculty of Applied Science | Engineering and technology |
| PhD Students in Causal Nutritional Epidemiology at the University of British Columbia (UBC) | Mahsa Jessri, Boris Sobolev | Faculty of Land and Food Systems | |
| Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Drug Safety and Surveillance | Faculty of Medicine | Clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice | |
| Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Rheology of Polymeric Materials | Dana Grecov | Faculty of Applied Science | Rheology |
| Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Numerical Simulations - CFD | Dana Grecov | Faculty of Applied Science | Numerical modelling and mechanical characterisation |
| PhD in Sampling Theory for Forest Growth | Tzeng Yih Lam | Faculty of Forestry | Quantitiative methods in forestry, Forest dynamics (including stand dynamics), Survey methodology and analysis, Statistical inference, Probability theory |
| Postdoctoral Fellow - Climate Extremes and Coastal Ecosystems | Simon Donner | Faculty of Arts | Oceanography, Climate change impacts and adaptation |
| Postdoctoral Scholar - Catalysis & Reaction Engineering | David Chester Upham | Faculty of Applied Science | Chemical engineering, Chemical sciences |
| Postdoctoral Research Fellow Opportunity | Catrina Loucks | Faculty of Medicine | Medical, health and life sciences |
| Postdoctoral Fellow in Wisnovsky & Williams Labs, UBC Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences | Karla Williams, Simon Wisnovsky | Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences | Cancer progression and metastasis, Tumour immunology |
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Faculty Members Recruiting Students
This list shows a selection of faculty members who are currently looking for new graduate students. They may have specified particular projects they wish to fill. Please ensure to review the departmental profile of each faculty member to learn more about their research interests and to ensure a good fit to your intended studies at UBC.
Last name |
First name | Research Interests | Desired start dates: | Project areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zhou | Youwen | Autoimmunity; Dermatology; Gene and molecular therapy; Translation research; Genetics and genomics of skin diseases; Vitiligo, pigmentation diseases, eczema; Innovative therapeutic development | Any time / year round |
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| Zhang | Jenny Li | Accounting; Economics and business administration; Management information systems; Finance and Accounting; Financial reporting, corporate disclosure, restatements, pension |
Financial reporting, corporate disclosure, restatements, disclosure of foreign firms listed in the U.S. |
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| Zhang | Wei | Public and population health; Health Policies; Pharmacoeconomics; Economic evaluation; Health economics | Any time / year round |
Work productivity loss measurement; Economic evaluation of health interventions |
| Zhang | Gaoheng | Intercultural and Ethnic Relationships; Cultural Exchanges; Migrations, Populations, Cultural Exchanges; Media and Society; Media Ethics; Media and Democratization; Migration Studies; Mobility Studies; Postcolonial Studies; Gender and Masculinity Studies; Race Theory; Film and Media Studies; Rhetoric and Communication Studies; Cultural Theory; Italian-Chinese relations; Italy's global networks; Modern and contemporary Italian literature and culture | Any time / year round |
Migration, postcolonial, and tourism studies relating to Italy and Europe; |
| Zerriffi | Hisham | Environmental geography; Forestry biomass and bioproducts; Modelling and applications of systems; Environment and natural resources economics; Environmental policy; Biomass (Energy); Energy Transformation and Energy Using; International development; Environment and Society; Ideological, Political, Economical and Social Environments of Social Transformations; Social and Cultural Factors of Environmental Protection; energy poverty | Any time / year round |
I do not have current funding for additional graduate students or post-doctoral scholars but am generally interested in modeling of energy access in developing countries, assessment of socio-ecological linkages in energy use, household choice and welfare implications related to energy use, and synergies and tradeoffs in meeting sustainable development goals in forestry, energy and land-use.... Read More |
| Yoon | Dongwook | Computer and information sciences; Computer Science and Statistics; design; Educational Technologies; Augmented reality; computer supported cooperative work (CSCW); Educational technology; Human-computer interaction (HCI); Interaction and interface design; Multimodal interaction; Speech, touch, multitouch, stylus, gesture, mixed-reality, 3d interaction; Virtual Reality | Any time / year round |
My research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI), computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW), computer-mediated communication (CMC), and educational technology. My primary research focus is to build rich collaboration systems that offer expressive multimodal interactions, i.e., interactions through multiple communication channels (e.g., speech, gesture, and grasp). My... Read More |
| Yip | Calvin | Biochemistry; Gene Regulation and Expression; Genetic Diseases; Enzymes and Proteins; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Molecular Structure and Sizing; Imaging; Chromatin modification / epigenetic regulation; Molecular etiologies of rare diseases; Regulation of autophagy degradation |
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| Yadav | Vikramaditya | Chemical engineering; Genomics; Medical and biomedical engineering; Bioactive Molecules; Biocatalysis; Bioinformatics; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Biomass (Energy); Biomaterials; Bioprocess engineering; Bioremediation; Biotechnology; drug delivery; Drug discovery & development; Medical biotechnology; Metabolic engineering; Structural Tissue Engineering / Biomaterials; Synthetic biology; Technoeconomics; Tissue Engineering; Vaccines | Any time / year round |
My research group utilizes metabolic & enzyme engineering to investigate and customize novel biosynthetic enzymes that can convert biomass-derived feedstocks into value-added chemicals. We have published highly acclaimed papers on model-guided enzyme engineering, process development, enzyme discovery using metagenomics and engineering metabolic control schemes that bridge with bioprocess... Read More |
| Yada | Rickey | Enzymes (including kinetics and mechanisms, and biocatalyst); Other biological sciences; Food science; Food protein chemistry; Structure-function relationships; Enzymes; aspartic proteases | Any time / year round |
Current research interests include: the structure-function relationships of food and non-food related enzymes using molecular biology and various physico-chemical techniques (eg. circular dichroism spectroscopy, micro-calorimeter, small angle neutron scattering, ultracentrifugation, enzyme kinetics, etc.), carbohydrate metabolism in potatoes as it related to process quality as well as various... Read More |
| Wylie | Alison | Philosophy; feminist philosophy; philosophy of archaeology; philosophy of science; philosophy of the social and historial sciences; Philosophy, History and Comparative Studies; research ethics (non-medical); science studies | Any time / year round |
Feminist standpoint theory; community based collaborative practice; Indigenous/science; content effects of systemic inequities in the sciences. |
| Wu | Lyndia | Biomechanical engineering; Biomedical instrumentation (including diagnostics); Biomedical signal processing; Mechanical characterization (including modeling, testing, and monitoring); Injury biomechanics; Soft Tissue Biomechanics; Traumatic Brain Injury; Sleep Biomechanics; Sensors and Instrumentation; Data Mining and Machine Learning; Wearable Sensing | Any time / year round, 2021 |
Please refer to simpl.mech.ubc.ca for project areas and opportunities. |
| Wisnovsky | Simon | Cancer genetics; Tumour immunology; Cellular immunology; Glycomics and glycobiology; Chemical genetics; Systems biology; Cellular interactions (including adhesion, matrix and cell wall); Genomics; Cancer molecular targets; glycobiology; carbohydrates; Tumor immunology; Functional genomics; CRISPR screening; Glycomics; Biochemistry; Molecular Genetics; Cell Biology; Cancer | Any time / year round, 2021, 2022 |
Dr. Wisnovsky's lab studies the cell surface glycome, a dense network of sugar molecules that coats the surface of every living cell. The glycome plays a fundamental role in regulating the activity of our immune system, helping immune cells to distinguish normal, healthy cells from abnormal cells and invading pathogens. In diseases like cancer, the structure of the cell-surface glycome becomes... Read More |
| Wilton | Steven | Electrical engineering, computer engineering, and information engineering; Integrated Circuits; Computer Architecture; Computer Hardware; Computer-Aided Design Algorithms; Field-Programmable Gate Arrays; High-Level Synthesis | Any time / year round |
Debug for FPGAs FPGA Architectures CAD for FPGAs |
| Williams | Ben | Topology; Algebra; Algebraic topology; Motivic homotopy theory; A1 homotopy theory |
The A1- and classical homotopy theory of algebraic groups, and their applications to algebra. |
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| Wiesner | Felix | Engineering design; Fire Safety; Timber Construction; Timber Engineering; Wood Products | 2025 |
Post-fire Damage of Mass Timber Structures |
| West | Christopher | Systems physiology; Animal physiology, circulation; Integrative physiology; Spinal cord injury; Animal models | 2023 |
Sympathetic control of the circulation (Basic NSERC-funded stream) Interventions to promote beneficial spinal plasticity following spinal cord injury (Health stream) Acute hemodynamic management of spinal cord injury |
| Weijs | Steven | Civil engineering; Water; Hydrological Cycle and Reservoirs; Drinking Water; Fresh Water; Information; Hydroelectricity; Ice and Snow; control of water systems; droughts; experimental hydrology; floods; Hydrological Prediction; Hydrology; information theory; mountain hydrology; sensors; uncertainty; water resources management | Any time / year round |
Projects regarding new measurement techniques for catchment hydrology |
| Weidberg | Hilla | Other basic medicine and life sciences; Cell Biology; Genetics; Biochemistry; molecular biology; Organelle biology; Mitochondria; Mitochondrial stress; Protein quality control; Metabolism; Neurodegenerative diseases | Any time / year round |
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| Wei | Juncheng | Differential equations and integral equations in pure mathematics; Partial and ordinary differential equations; Mathematics; Geometric analysis; Mathematical biology; Nonlinear partial differential equations; reaction-diffusion systems; singular perturbations and concentration phenomena; singularity formations in fluids; Nonlinear Analysis | Any time / year round |
De Giorgi conjectures, fractional equations, blow-ups in nonlinear parabolic and elliptic equations |
| Weber | Alexander | Neurocognitive patterns and neural networks; Central nervous system; Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI); Quantitative MRI; Brain Disorders; resting state functional MRI; myelin water imaging; Arterial Spin Labelling; Diffusion Tensor Imaging; Fractal based analysis; Concussion; Diagnostic Imaging; Epilepsy; Seizures; Traumatic Brain Injury; open science; Biomedical Engineering; Rett Syndrome | Any time / year round |
Neonatal Brain Imaging Rett Syndrome Fractal Analysis of fMRI Signals Cerebrovascular Health Cerebral Metabolic Rate of Oxygen (CMRO2) Mapping by Combining Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) and Quantitative Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent Imaging (qBOLD) Concussions / Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries Using Advanced MRI Techniques FLAIR2 and QSM... Read More |
| Wasteneys | Geoff | Plant biology; Cell signaling; Hormones and Growth Factors; Molecular Genetics; Cellulose Biosynthesis; Microtubule Dynamics and Organization; Plant Cell Walls in Cell Shape and Tissue Function; Plant Growth and Development; Plant Responses to Abiotic Stress; Trafficking of Membrane Receptors and Transporters | Any time / year round |
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| Wasserman | Wyeth | Medical, health and life sciences; Medical and biomedical engineering; Creation of computational methods for the analysis of genome sequences (bioinformatics); Study of cis-regulatory elements controlling gene transcription; Applied analyses of genome sequences (genomics); Indigenous genomics | Any time / year round |
Gene Regulation Amongst the most important challenges of this era of life science research is understanding the regulation of gene expression, a process that allows an incredible diversity of cells to be produced from the same genome sequence. During development and across physiological conditions, a set of proteins, called Transcription Factors (TFs), interact with the... Read More |
| Wang | Fei | Educational administration, management and leadership; Educational policy; Specialized studies in education; Educational administration and leadership in K-12 setting; Leadership; the role of the school principals; social justice and diversity; comparative policy studies; Education and Training Management; Ideology and Social Policy; Social Contract and Social Justice; Offshore school and its leadership | Any time / year round |
My research lies in the areas of educational leadership and administration, social justice and diversity, “subversive” leadership, leadership in cross-cultural settings, and educational policy studies in K-12 settings. I explore how principals negotiate policies and practices that they consider socially unjust to students and how they “creatively” cope with conflicts between moral and ethical... Read More |
| Wang | Ying | Cardiology and circulatory sciences (including cardiovascular disease); Cell differentiation, proliferation and death; Drug discovery, design and delivery; atherosclerosis; Diabetic cardiomyopathy; Vascular biology; Spatial 'Omics'; Drug repurposing and therapeutic design; Disease modeling; Digital Pathology | 2024, 2025 |
1. Finding therapeutic targets to remove diseased cells in the atherosclerotic lesions 2. Drug repurposing for atherosclerotic disease 3. Developing spatial and single-cell endotyping technologies for cardiovascular tissues Current opportunities: https://www.hli.ubc.ca/careers/
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| Wachs | Anthony | Fluidization and fluid mechanics; Process control and simulation in chemical engineering; Numerical computation; Fluid mechanics; Particle-laden flows; Non Newtonian flows; Heat and mass transfer; Numerical simulation; High performance computing; Multi-scale modelling | Any time / year round |
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| von Bergmann | Hsingchi | Medicine, nursing and health curriculum, pedagogy and didactics; Other medical sciences; Philosophy; assessment; PBL; Beliefs & Identity; Online Teaching and Learning; Professionalism; Wellbeing; decision making | 2025 |
Online Teaching & Learning in Higher Education Population oral health Professional Identity and Professionalism Admission/Selection |
| Victoriano | Ramon Antonio | Caribbean literatures; Latin American literatures; Contemporary literatures; Hispanic Caribbean Literatures and Cultures; Latin American Contemporary Novel and Short Story; Caribbean Literatures | Any time / year round |
Blackness in the Hispanic Caribbean. Cultural History of Hispanic Caribbean printed media. |
| Velenosi | Thomas | Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences, n.e.c.; Cancer drug development and therapeutics; Cancer molecular targets; Metabolomics; Lipid biology (including lipidomics); Pharmacometabolomics; Pharmacology; Lipidomics; mass spectrometry; Cancer; Stable isotope tracing; Bioinformatics | Any time / year round |
Metabolites directly reflect genetic, physiological, and environmental changes and can provide a reliable readout for therapeutic effectiveness. Pharmacometabolomics refers to the study of measuring metabolite changes in response to drug therapy. In the assessment of cancer, metabolites excreted from tumors can be measured by routine non-invasive sampling of plasma and urine. Projects in the... Read More |
| Vedam | Saraswathi | Gestation / Parturition; Human Rights and Liberties, Collective Rights; Right and Access to Information; Home Care Services; Law and Health; Social Contract and Social Justice; Community Health / Public Health; Breast Feeding and Infant Nutrition; Family and Child Services; Home Birth; Place of Birth; Provider Attitudes; Respectful Maternity Care; Midwifery; Interprofessional relationships; Person-Centered Care; Patient Autonomy; Institutional Racism in Maternity Care; Maternal and Newborn Outcomes; Maternity care for diverse populations; Transdisciplinary engagement in health care; Mistreatment | Any time / year round |
Active analysis and knowledge translation projects: qualitative and quantitative data generated by participatory maternity care research: Changing Childbirth in BC, Giving Voice to Mothers - US (participatory research on experiences of maternity care and disparities), Access and Integration Maternity Care Mapping study (links between regulatory frameworks and disparities), Giving Voice to... Read More |
| Vanderwal | Tamara | Functional Neuroimaging; child psychiatric disorders; depression in youth | 2024, 2025 |
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| Van Raamsdonk | Catherine | Genetic medicine; Health counselling; cancer genetics; Developmental Genetics; Human Cancer Genetics; Melanocytes; Melanoma; Molecular Genetics; Mouse Genetics and Transgenesis; Oncogenesis; Pigmentation |
Cancer cell metastasis. Neural crest cell development. Molecular analysis of melanocytes and melanoma cells from mouse models: transcriptomics, bioinformatics, proteomics. Primary cell culture, FACS, Immunohistochemistry/Immunofluorescence. Therapeutics and signaling pathways in melanoma. |
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| Van Petegem | Filip | Biochemistry; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Genetic Diseases; Calcium signaling; Cardiac arrhythmia; electrical signaling; electrophysiology; Epilepsy; Ion channels; Structural Biology | Any time / year round |
1) Muscle excitation-contraction coupling: How does an electrical signal in a muscle cell get transmitted into contraction? We investigate the membrane proteins involved in this process (L-type calcium channels, Ryanodine Receptors), as well as the various proteins that modulate these channels. Projects include solving crystal and cryo-EM structures of these channels in complex with the... Read More |
| Van de Panne | Michiel | Computer Science and Statistics; Computer Sciences and Mathematical Tools; Robotics and Automation; simulation of human movement; computer animation; Robotics; deep reinforcement learning; motor control; computer graphics | Any time / year round |
simulation of agile human motion, robotics, motion planning, sensorimotor control, dexterous manipulation, computer animation, machine learning, computer graphics, novel interfaces |
| Upham | David Chester | Chemical engineering; Energy Transformation and Energy Using; catalysis; Energy; Greenhouse gas mitigation | Any time / year round |
Catalysts for CO2 conversion Methane pyrolysis New ways to electrically heat thermochemical reactors with low-GHG electricity Carbon fiber synthesis High temperature hydrogen separation membranes Ammonia as a hydrogen carrier Technoeconomic analysis
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| Turvey | Stuart | Immunology; Microbiology; Asthma; Immune System; Immunodeficiencies; Microbiome cohort studies; Precision Medicine; Primary Immune Deficiencies | Any time / year round |
Genetics of Susceptibility to Childhood Infection Until very recently, clinical immunologists have focused most attention on patients with a ‘noisy clinical phenotype’—multiple, severe and recurrent infections. Indeed, the origin of primary immunodeficiencies is generally attributed to Bruton’s 1952 description of X-linked agammaglobulinemia in a boy whose repeated pneumococcal infections... Read More |
| Tseng | Michelle | Population ecology; Community ecology (except invasive species ecology); Evolutionary impacts of climate change; Biological adaptation; Ecological impacts of climate change; Insect & plankton ecology; Community and evolutionary ecology; Community responses to warming; Urban biodiversity |
I may have space for 1 PhD student starting fall 2024. Students interested in working on insect biodiversity or on insect/plankton responses to warming temperatures are encouraged to email me. |
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| Traboulsee | Tony | Neurology; Central nervous system; Biomedical signal processing; Machine learning; magnetic resonance imaging; multiple sclerosis; Neuromyelitls optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD); Myelin Oligodendrocyte Antibody Disorder (MOGAD); Brain MRI; Spinal Cord MRI | 2025 |
Image analysis related:
Clinical sciences in multiple sclerosis and rare diseases (NMOSD, MOGAD)
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| Todesco | Marco | Plant biology; Quantitative genetics (including disease and trait mapping genetics); Biological adaptation; Developmental genetics (including sex determination); Genomics; Population, ecological and evolutionary genetics; Paleogenomics; Genetics engineering; Plant-animal interactions; Genetic and molecular basis of adaptation; Plant genomics; Chromosomal structural variation; Crop improvement and bioengineering; Wild sunflowers ecology and evolution; Cannabis diversity and domestication | Any time / year round |
Genetic basis of adaptation in wild sunflower species Characterization of adaptation genes/haploblocks Cannabis genetics and genomics Use of wild relatives for crop improvement Development of genomics techniques
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| Todd | Rebecca | Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Psychology and cognitive sciences; Human Cognition and Emotion; Neurophenomenology and participatory sensemaking; Dance as a laboratory for interactive cognition; cognition; Emotional learning; Human Neurocognitive processes underlying all of the above; Learning and Memory; Motivation, Emotions and Rewards | 2025, 2026, 2027 |
Dance improvisation as a laboratory for understanding interactive cognition; Neurophenemonology of mental health/addiction; Active/inhibitory avoidance in major depression |
| Tessier | Anne-Michelle | Linguistic structures (including grammar, phonology, lexicon and semantics); Constraint-based grammars; L2 production and perception in childhood; Language Acquisition; Lexical avoidance; Phonology; Prosodic processing with cochlear implants; Shitgibbons; U-shaped development | Any time / year round |
Constraint-based approaches to phonological development Phonological learnability L1 morpho-phonological learning |
| Taubert | Stefan | Other health sciences; Gene regulation and expression; Transcriptomics; Genomics; Aging; beta cells; C. elegans; Diabetes; Gene Regulation and Expression; Gene regulation; Genetics of Aging; genomics; Hypoxia; Metabolism; Molecular Genetics; Mouse; stress; Stress and Cancer; Stress responses; Toxin and Toxicant Metabolism; Transcription | 2024 |
We study how cells, tissues, and organisms adapt to stresses (hypoxia, oxidative stress, starvation) and how their function is compromised during aging. We investigate these processes and cellular responses because they contribute to or even cause human pathologies, such as cancers, diabetes, and neurodegenerative disorders. We are especially interested in gene regulation by the... Read More |
| Suttle | Curtis | Bioinformatics; Fisheries sciences; Immunology; Microbiology; Oceanography; Plant biology; Biological Oceanography; Environmental Virology; Marine Environment; Marine Microbiology; Microbial Diversity; Phage; Viral Discovery; Viruses | Any time / year round |
post-doctoral scholars will normally need fellowship support |
| Sunderland | Terence | Earth and related environmental sciences; Social and economic geography; biodiversity; Communications; Communities and Livelihoods; conservation; Conservation Biology; Ecosystem services; Environmental communication; Forest policy; Land-use Change; Landscape ecology; Natural Resource Management; social science; sustainability; Tropical Landscapes and Livelihoods; Developing countries; Forest management | 2021, 2022 |
Forests and food security; sustainable landscape management; biodiversity; rural livelihoods and markets; ecosystem services; non-timber forest products |
| Stefanska | Barbara | Nutrition and Cancer; Breast Cancer; Hepatic Diseases; Gene Regulation and Expression; Epigenetics, Cancer epigenetics, Nutritional epigenomics | Any time / year round |
Epigenetics refers to the molecular events controlling gene expression that are independent of changes in the underlying DNA sequence. These events include DNA methylation, covalent histone modifications, and non-coding RNA-related mechanisms. Epigenetic modifications of DNA, namely DNA methylation, have been shown to contribute to the etiology of chronic diseases with cancer at the forefront... Read More |
| Stecklov | Guy | Family and household demographic studies; Fertility; Migration; Mortality; Demography; Studies of Canadian society; Demographic behavior; Historical social change; Demographic Change in Sub-Saharan Africa; Migration and assimilation; Population and Development; Research and survey methodology | 2023 |
My newest research is funded by a five-year SSHRC grant and explores the role of World War 1 in Canada's demographic development in the first half of the 20th Century. It aims to return war and military service to the forefront of research after decades of neglect. This particular research focuses on understanding how war and serving in the military impacted population processes in Canada in... Read More |
| Spering | Miriam | Biological sciences; vision; movement; perception and action; eye movements; hand movements; eye-hand coordination; sport vision; Parkinson's disease | 2025, 2026 |
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| Speller | Camilla | Anthropology; Archeological Data Analysis; Molecular Genetics; Ancient DNA Analysis (paleogenetics); Ancient proteins (paleoproteomics); Animal Domestication; Bioarchaeology; Environmental Archaeology; Marine Ecosystems | Any time / year round |
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| Soon | Isaac | Early Christianity and New Testament |
I am open to supervising students in the areas of biblical studies especially as related to disability, gender, and enslavement in early Christian literature. |
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| Somasekharan | Syam | Cancer, n.e.c.; Cell biology, n.e.c.; RNA Biology; Cell Biology; molecular biology; Biomolecular Condensates; Nucleolus; mRNA Translation; Liquid-liquid Phase Separation | 2024, 2025 |
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| Sly | Laura | Innate immunity; Inflammatory bowel disease; Inflammation; macrophages; Cell signalling | Any time / year round |
Immunometabolism and gut health |