Canadian Immigration Updates
Review details about the recently announced changes to study and work permits that apply to master’s and doctoral degree students. Read more
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott | Douglas | Astronomical and space sciences; Physical sciences; Cosmology; Science and Knowledge | Any time / year round |
A wide range of topics within observational and theoretical cosmology |
| Semenoff | Gordon Walter | Particle physics theory (including aspects of field theory and string theory); Physical sciences; Moedal experiment, Large Hadron Collider, CERN; String theory, quantum field theory, statistical mechanics; Theoretical and mathematical physics, the physics of elementary particles, condensed matter physics | Any time / year round |
String theory, quantum field theory |
| Shadgan | Babak | Medical biotechnology diagnostics (including biosensors); Biomedical instrumentation (including diagnostics); Orthopedics; Sports medicine; Bone, skin and cartilage science; Central nervous system; Implantable Biosensing; sensor and system design, clinical application development; Wearable Biosensors; design and application development in health care and exercise sciences; Musculoskeletal, Sports & Exercise Medicine; Bone Fracture Healing; Spinal Cord Injuries | 2022 |
Implantable biosensors for monitoring organ health and function, Spinal cord hemodynamics monitoring, Bone healing research,
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| Shan | Hongxia | Other education, n.e.c.; Immigration and adult education and learning; Lifelong learning; Gender and work; Prof. learning |
Migration and adult education and learning; Lifelong learning in Asia; Work and learning; |
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| Shannon | Kate | Ethical, legal, and social issues in health, health systems and health research; Population health interventions; Social oppression and marginalization; equitable sexual health care; reproductive care and justice; structural interventions & policy evaluation; health equity & social justice | 2025, 2026, 2027 |
Youth sexual and reproductive health care; reproductive justice; gender and health equity; policy evaluation |
| Sheel | William | Animal physiology, exercise; Kinesiology; airways, exercise, hypoxia, pulmonary physiology, respiratory muscle | 2024 |
Sex differences in airway anatomy and fatigue of the diaphragm. Effects of healthy ageing on the biology of exercise. Respiratory influences on neurovascular control. Other research projects that are of interest to trainees can often be developed in consultation with Dr. Sheel |
| Silberman | Lior | Mathematics and statistics; Mathematics; Analysis on manifolds; Automorphic forms; Group Theory; Homogenous dynamics; Metric geometry; Number theory; Representation Theory; Topology |
Mathematics, almost any field |
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| Sin | Nancy | Psychology and cognitive sciences; stress; Well-being; Adult development and aging; Social Aspects of Aging; Positive Emotions; Sleep; Health Promotion; social determinants of health; Health behaviours; Lifestyle Determinants and Health | 2025 |
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| Sladen | Douglas | Medical, health and life sciences; cochlear implantation among children and adults | Any time / year round |
Setting up a new virtual reality test environment |
| Sly | Laura | Innate immunity; Inflammatory bowel disease; Inflammation; macrophages; Cell signalling | Any time / year round |
Immunometabolism and gut health |
| 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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| 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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| 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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| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Tessier | Anne-Michelle | Linguistic structures (including grammar, phonology, lexicon and semantics); Constraint-based grammars; Phonological acquisition; L2 production and perception in childhood; Lexical avoidance; Phonological theories; Shitgibbons | Any time / year round |
Constraint-based approaches to phonological development Phonological learnability L1 morpho-phonological learning |
| Todd | Rebecca | Cognitive sciences, n.e.c.; Neurocognitive patterns and neural networks; Neurosciences, medical and health and physiological aspects, n.e.c.; 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 |
| 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; 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 Wild berries in the PNW
|
| 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)
|
| 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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| 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 |
| 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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| 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 |
| 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 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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| Vanderwal | Tamara | Functional Neuroimaging; child psychiatric disorders; depression in youth | 2024, 2025 |
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| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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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| 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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| 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 |
| 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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| 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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| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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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| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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. |
| 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. |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Yi | Kwang Moo | Computer vision in artificial intelligence; Pattern recognition and artificial vision; 3D Computer Vision; Computer Vision; Machine Learning; Astronomy Applications of Computer VIsion | 2025 |
Application of Machine Learning methods and Generative Models to 3D Computer Vision |
| 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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