Research Projects

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Applicants to Master’s and Doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details

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 namesort descending First name Research Interests Desired start dates: Project areas
Lallous Nada Cancer drug development and therapeutics; Cancer progression and metastasis; Cancer molecular targets; Biochemistry; Biophysics; Cancer biology; Therapeutics; Protein research; Drug resistance; transcription factors 2021

Expression, purification and biophysical characterization of various prostate cancer targets.

Lamers Yvonne Human nutrition and dietetics; Nutrition; Nutrients; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Breast Feeding and Infant Nutrition; Clinical Chemistry; Maternal and child health; Micronutrients; Newborn Screening; Nutritional Biochemistry; Nutritional Biomarker; Periconceptional folic acid supplementation; Pregnancy; Prenatal Supplements; Toddler Nutrition; Vitamins Any time / year round

My enthusiasm for research draws from my interest in the biochemistry and physiology of nutrition-related diseases and in targeted and population-based strategies of chronic disease prevention and optimal health promotion. My research focuses on micronutrients and specifically B-vitamins and their kinetics and functions in human metabolism. B-vitamins are required for normal cell growth and... Read More

Lange Philipp Bioinformatics; Genomics; Pathology (except oral pathology); Cell Signaling and Cancer; mass spectrometry; pediatric cancer; personalized medicine; post translational protein modification; Proteomics Any time / year round
  • translational portoemics in childhood cancer
  • advancing precision medicine in childhood cancer
  • proteolytic regulation of cell-cell communication
  • computational and experimental approaches to better understand and classify proteoforms
  • new algorithms in quantitative mass spectrometry data analysis  
Laronde Denise Cancer; oral cancer screening; malignant transformation; early detection; oral premalignant lesions

oral cancer screening

early detection

markers of progression

Lazrak Ali Finance and Accounting; Economic Phenomena on an Individual or Organizational Level; Asset pricing, Corporate Finance, Behavioral Finance, Household portfolio choice

Different research projects in the finance area are available

Leavitt Blair Genetic medicine; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Alzheimer's disease; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis; Ataxia; Dementia; Experimental Therapeutics; Frontotemporal Dementia; Gene regulation; Gene Silencing and Gene Editing; Gene Therapy; Huntington disease; Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells; Medical Genetics; Mouse models of disease; Neurodegenerative diseases; Neurogenetics

Mouse models of neurodegenerative diseases
Clinical biomarkers of neurodegenerative diseases (Imaging, CSF, Blood)
Gene silencing, gene editing and gene therapy for brain diseases
Transcriptional regulation of disease genes
Experimental therapeutics for neurodegenerative diseases
Induced pluripotent stem cells models of human brain diseases

Lester Richard Infectious diseases; Digital health; Mobile health (mHealth); Precision Public Health; Patient-centered care; Global Health Any time / year round

Global digital health for patient engagement in care and virtual care. Work in Canada, Africa and globally. Quantitative and qualitative studies, implementation research, data science, and digital health policy and ethics. Especially among scaling interventions to benefit vulnerable populations and health equity.

Levings Megan Immunology; Cell therapy; Immune tolerance; Transplantation; Autoimmunity; Gene Therapy; Regulatory T cells 2023

Various projects related to regulatory T cell therapy biology and clinical applications

Li Shyh-Dar Drug discovery, design and delivery; Nano-technology; biopharmaceutics; drug delivery; nanomedicine; pharmaceutics; Gene delivery and therapy Any time / year round
  1. Development of lipid and polymer based nanoparticles for targeted drug and nucleic acid delivery
  2. Development of child-friendly formulations
  3. Ocular drug delivery
  4. Drug delivery to the brain
  5. Sustained drug release formulations
  6. Needle free delivery of proteins
  7. Gene therapy and vaccine
Lim Chinten James Cancer progression and metastasis; Solid cancer tumours; Hematological tumours; tumour cell biology; mechanisms of drug resistance; integrin cell adhesion and migration; tumour microenvironment; pediatric oncology Any time / year round

Integrin cell adhesion in chemotherapeutic resistance. Targeted drug susceptibilities. Tumour microenvironment. Immunogenic cell death. Pediatric oncology.

Liu-Ambrose Teresa Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Physical therapy; Rehabilitation medicine; Healthy Aging; exercise; Fall prevention; Cognitive Aging; Randomized Controlled Trials; Physical Activity; Mobility; Neuroimaging; Sleep Any time / year round

Increasing precision in exercise prescription to promote cognitive and brain health. The neural interplay between cognitive function and mobility. The relationship between sleep and cognitive function. Preventing falls in high-risk older adults.

Loewen Peter Cardiology and circulatory sciences (including cardiovascular disease); Clinical pharmacy and pharmacy practice; Knowledge translation and implementation science in health; atrial fibrillation; Pharmacoepidemiology; Thrombosis and Embolism; adherence to medication; Cardiovascular diseases; Arrhythmia; Heart Failure; stroke; Health Care Technologies; Professional Practices; Hematology; decision making; clinical prediction rules; healthcare communication technologies; hospital pharmacy practice; knowledge translation of evidence to patient care; patient complexiometry; patient decision aids; patient education; pharmacy practice; prediction of stroke and bleeding in atrial fibrillation patients; quality of care, quality drug therapy; Shared decision-making; stroke prevention therapy; use of mobile technology for clinical decision-making Any time / year round

In the above domains, to be worked out with excellent candidates. I am well funded by CIHR and have an excellent track record of mentoring MSc and PhD students. 

Loewen Christopher Membranes and Organelles; Lipid Signalling; Lipid Traffic; Membrane Contact Sites; Genetic Networks; Systems Biology; Super Resolution Microscopy; Cell polarity; Endoplasmic Reticulum; Golgi; Membrane Diffusion Barriers; Cell Biology; Autism; Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS); Cancer Cell Metabolism Any time / year round

We currently have projects in the areas of genetic networks, cell signalling, membrane contact sites, cell polarity, cancer metabolism and autism. We use multiple model systems to study these topics including budding yeast for genetic network analysis, model human cell lines for cell signalling and microscopy, and knockout mouse genetic models for in vivo functional analysis.

Lorincz Matthew Genetic medicine; Developmental Genetics; genomics; chromatin; Development; Epigenetics; Epigenomics; Gene regulation 2024
  • Role of epigenetics in male and female germline development
  • Role of retroelements in gene regulation
  • Interplay between epigenetic marks and DNA methylation in the early embryo
Loucks Catrina Medical, health and life sciences; Pharmacogenomics; Pain management; Medical Genetics; Model organism genetics; Drug reactions Any time / year round

In our work, we strive to make a meaningful impact on maternal and child health by contributing to leading-edge research aimed at improving pain management.

Safe and effective pain management is influenced by individual genetic differences that dictate both how we feel pain and how we respond to specific pain relievers. Using pharmacogenomics, the study of how genetic... Read More

Lynn Francis Diabetes; ß-cell development; ß-cell biology; Human pluripotent stem cells; CRISPR/Cas; transcriptional regulation Any time / year round

Research in the Lynn lab is targeted at understanding the insulin-producing pancreatic β-cell, how it fails during diabetes mellitus and how we can make surrogate cells to cure diabetes. We use a variety of models to study the regulatory pathways important for embryonic β-cell genesis and function. The current focus of research in the lab is understanding how DNA-binding transcription factors... Read More

Macfarlane Allison Research, science and technology policy; science and technology policy; energy policy, regulation; nuclear energy, nuclear waste management Any time / year round

Nuclear waste management and disposal, nuclear energy policy and regulation issues.

MacLean Karon Computer and information sciences; Information Systems; design of user interfaces; haptic interfaces; human-computer interaction; human-robot interaction

Human-robot interaction, user interface design, interactive sensing

Madden John Electrical engineering, computer engineering, and information engineering; Medical and biomedical engineering; artificial muscle; electrochemical devices; electronic skin; Functional and Intelligent Materials; medical devices; smart materials; supercapacitors; wearables Any time / year round

We are developing new wearable technologies for medical, robotic and consumer applications.

Maharaj Anil Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences, n.e.c.; Pharmacometrics; Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacodynamics; Obstetric and Pediatric Pharmacology Any time / year round

Master’s and PhD Students 

Potential Projects:
•  Assessment of breast milk-drug partitioning
•  Evaluation of the influence of renal replacement therapy on drug pharmacokinetics in children
•  Development of a Bayesian population pharmacokinetic platform for use in clinical practice

 

Manges Amee Health sciences; Immunology; Microbiology; Public and population health; Epidemiology; Molecular epidemiology; Public health

Human microbiome research and molecular epidemiology

Marshall Christopher Warren Cinema studies; Classical Greek and Ancient Rome history; Classical archaeology; Classical linguistics; Film, television and digital media; Religion and religious studies; Literary or Artistic Works Analysis; Performance and Theatrical Productions Any time / year round

I am interested in Greek and Roman poetry and its receptions, and most of my scholarship has focused on ancient theatre. I look at how genre and structure (including metre and other formal elements) can shape a literary work and how it is perceived and understood by its original audience, and by subsequent audiences. My research falls into four broad categories: Greek and Roman Theatre and... Read More

Marshall Hallie Performing arts; Ancient Greek Theatre; Arts and Cultural Traditions; Classics; Contemporary British Theatre; Cultural Industries; History of the Book; Literary or Artistic Work Dissemination or Reception Contexts; Performance and Theatrical Productions; Poetry; Reception Studies; Religion, Culture and Space; Theatre; Tony Harrison

See my areas of research interest.

Marshall Katie Animal physiology, environmental stress; Environmental Change; Marine biodiversity; Population Ecology; invertebrates and temperature adaptation

Population variation in enzyme activity, metabolic rate

Masse Louise Health care administration; Health sciences; Public and population health; Childhood obesity with specific interests in prevention and treatment using lifestyle modification; Films, Membranes and Multiphase Polymers; Health Promotion; Nutrition; Obesity; Physical Activity
  1. Understand how behaviour modification works to change lifestyles behaviours associated with obesity - Randomized control trial
  2. Understand how transitioning from elementary schools to secondary school influence student health behaviours associated with obesity
  3. Understand the influence of the Active Play standards influence licensed childcare centre as well as the... Read More
Matthews Philip Animal physiology, respiration; Insect biology; Animal physiology, biophysics; Comparative biomechanics; Animal physiological ecology; Comparative Physiology; biomechanics; Insect physiology; Respiratory Physiology 2024

The biomechanics and energetics of xylem-feeding bugs

The evolution and physiology of hydrostatic organs in the aquatic larvae of the midge family Chaoboridae

Mayer Ulrich Geology; groundwater contamination; groundwater remediation; hydrogeology; low-temperature geochemistry; mine waste management 2024, 2025

Development of multicomponent reactive transport modeling tools for multiphase systems

Refinement of multicomponent reactive transport modeling approaches for mine waste management

Mayor Thibault Biochemistry; Genomics; Aging; Cell Biology; Neurodegenerative diseases; Proteasome; Protein Degradation; Protein Folding; Proteomics; Proteostasis; Ubiquitin; Yeast Genetics Any time / year round

The main lab focus is protein quality control and how misfolded proteins are triaged within the cell. In the next years, we want to establish several new projects and here are some examples:
- Identification of protein quality control pathways mediating rare genetic diseases in human.
- Reconstitution of the quality control machinery in vitro to better understand the molecular... Read More

McCormick Kelly Asian history; Visual theory, visual culture and visual literacy; Modern Japan; History of Visual and Material Culture/Photography; History of Technology; History of Gender and Sexuality 2022

Modern Japan; 20th century visual and material culture

McKay Heather Population health interventions; Aging process; Social and biological determinants of aging; Health promotion and disease prevention; Prevention, treatment and support of youth health; Medical, health and life sciences; Knowledge translation and implementation science in health; Health and community services; Aging Process; Public and Population Health Any time / year round

Healthy aging

Implementation science

Scale-up of health promoting innovations

Adapting effective health promoting innovations for equity deserving groups

Health equity

Equity in implementation science

Menkis Richard Canadian history; Historical memory; Jewish history; Holocaust studies 2021

Historical writing, historical memory and identities of Canadian Jews

Canadian responses to the Third Reich and to the Holocaust

 

 

Menzies Charles Social sciences; Indigenous studies; Natural Resource Management; Maritime Anthropology; Western Europe; Ethnographic Film Any time / year round

Indigenous students engaged (and/or interested) in community based research, decolonizing practices, and process that support Indigenous authority and jurisdiction are encouraged to connect with Professor Menzies to discuss potential applications to graduate study.  Other students interested in exploring the relations of power and inequality within contemporary capitalist society and settler... Read More

Miller Bradley Historical studies; British Empire History; Canadian history; Criminal Justice History; International Law and International Relations; legal history; North American History; Political History Any time / year round

Canadian History; North American History; British Empire History; Legal History; Political History; Criminal Justice History; International Law and International Relations

Milloy Michael-John Infectious diseases; Clinical sciences, n.e.c.; Psychosocial, sociocultural and behavioral determinants of health; medical cannabis; overdose; HIV disease; people who use drugs; Substance use disorder

Graduate trainees and post-graduate-level fellows are invited to express their interest in working on two funded studies involving the health of marginalized people who use drugs in Vancouver, Canada:

1. The AIDS Care Cohort to evaluate Exposure to Survival Services (ACCESS): This United States National Institutes of Health-funded open observational prospective cohort... Read More

Milner-Bolotin Marina Curriculum, pedagogy and didactics; Science, technology and engineering curriculum, pedagogy and didactics; Specialized studies in education; Educational Technologies; educational innovation; Educational technology; physics education; STEM education; STEM teacher education; Science and Knowledge; teacher education; Teacher and Student Performance Evaluation; Teaching; Teaching and Learning Systems; Technological Innovations

Physics education, STEM education

Moore Alex Community ecology (except invasive species ecology); Plant-animal interactions; Global change biology; Ecological restoration (except bioremediation); Applied community and ecosystem ecology; impact of predator-prey interactions on the health and functioning of coastal wetland ecosystems; role of cultural values and knowledge in ecosystem restoration conservation; Global change impacts on coastal environments 2024, 2025

Interdisciplinary research on coastal wetland ecology and conservation

Moran Patrick French language; Arts, Literature and Subjectivity; History of Major Eras, Great Civilisations or Geographical Corpuses; Popular Cultures Produced and Broadcasted by Media; Arthurian Romance; Cognitive Poetics; Comparative Medieval Literature; Genre Theory; Interactive Fiction; Material Philology; Medieval French Literature; Medieval Narrative Literature; Medievalism; Narrative Theory; Old French; Reader-Response Theory; Science Fiction and Fantasy Any time / year round

Medieval French literature, primarily (but not limited to) narrative literature of the 12th and 13th centuries.

Medievalism in contemporary literature.

Nagamune Ryozo Systems control and automation; Manufacturing engineering; control engineering; data-driven modeling and control; robust and linear parameter-varying control; modeling and control of floating offshore wind turbines and wind farms; modeling and control of metal additive manufacturing processes; modeling and control of solar themal systems; modeling and control of automotive engines; optimization Any time / year round, 2023, 2024

Floating offshore wind farm control and optimization

Control of an integrated solar thermal system

Modeling and control of metal additive manufacturing processes

Nakamura Fuyubi Social and cultural anthropology; Museum studies (Museology); Visual theory, visual culture and visual literacy; Globalization and culture; Environment, space and place; Anthropology of art; museum studies (working as curator at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC); material and visual culture; Contemporary Japanese calligraphy; Indigenous cultures, especially Ainu; disaster and memory, especially in the context of the Great East Japan Earthquake (3.11).; contemporary Asian art and culture 2024

I am a socio cultural anthropologist, but am not a faculty member in the Department of Anthropology and cannot supervise students in that department. I am a faculty member in the Department of Asian studies and supervise students in the graduate programs in Asian studies. 

Nicolaou Savvakis Radiology, nuclear medicine and medical imaging; Computed Tomography; Artificial Intelligence; Emergency Radiology; Trauma Radiology; Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Any time / year round, 2021

Emergency/Trauma Imaging, Computed Tomography, Machine Learning, Healthcare Applications

Nielsen Torsten Clinical oncology; Pathology (except oral pathology); Biomarker development; Breast Cancer; Cancer Diagnosis and Detection; Cancer of the Musculoskeletal System; Clinical trials; Epigenomics; Experimental Therapeutics; Immuno-oncology; Tissue-based diagnostic technologies; Translational research; Genetically engineered mouse models 2024, 2025

Fusion oncogene biology and experimental therapeutics Cancer biomarker development: immuno-oncology, in situ multiplex diagnostics, NanoString profiling

Nolde Natalia Statistics; Statistics and Probabilities; Applications in finance, insurance, geosciences; Multivariate extreme value theory; Risk assessment Any time / year round

Financial risk analytics
Multivariate extreme value theory

Oberg Gunilla History and philosophy of science (including non-historical philosophy of science); Other earth and related environmental sciences, n.e.c.; Indigenous peoples environmental knowledge; All other social sciences, n.e.c.; Science and knowledge production; Scientific controversies surrounding the evaluation of chemical risk (epistemic and ontological); Indigenous data justice as related to chemicals regulation & management; Social and cultural factors of chemicals regulation & management; Vocabulary, Knowledge, Significance and Thought Building; environmental health; The challenge of teaching science as a process and not a deliverer of irrefutable facts; The role of deliberation in science 2023

The Egesta Lab seeks outstanding graduate student applicants to obtain doctoral or masters degrees under the Resources, Environment and Sustainability (RES) graduate program. Indigenous students are particularly welcome as part of our growing program "Weaving Indigenous world views into existing chemicals management practices" which is... Read More

Oberle Eva Public and population health; Other education; Adolescent Mental Health/ Social-Emotional Wellbeing; Positive youth development; Promoting mental health and wellbeing through schools; Risk and resilience; Research with population-level data; Social and emotional learning in schools 2025

Quantitative research using data from the Middle Years Development Instrument and other HELP-surveys. Topics all focus on the development of children and youth and include trajectories of wellbeing over time, associatios between social-emotional competence and academic success, differences in social-emotional and mental wellbeing among population subgroups. Examining aspects of... Read More

Ollivier-Gooch Carl Aerodynamics (except hypersonic aerodynamics); Computational fluid mechanics; Algorithm Development for Computational Fluid Dynamics; Applied Aerodynamics; Numerical analysis; Unstructured Mesh Generation; Error and Stability Analysis for Unstructured Mesh Methods; Computer Sciences and Mathematical Tools; Fluid mechanics 2024
  • Simulation of high-lift aerodynamic configurations, including extending my group's existing tools as needed for these problems.
  • Developing tools to identify whether there are unresolved features in a flow.
  • Combine and extend my group's existing tools to produce a complete toolchain for mesh generation for complex aerodynamic configurations.
Ortner Christoph Numerical analysis; Mathematical modelling and simulation; Partial and ordinary differential equations; Computational chemistry; Condensed matter modelling and density functional theory; Numerical modelling and mechanical characterisation; Numerical Analysis & Scientific Computing; Applied Analysis; Multi-scale Modelling and Coarse-graining; Molecular Simulation; Scientific Machine-learning, in particular for applications in multi-scale modelling Any time / year round

http://www.math.ubc.ca/~ortner/

Oser Scott Physical sciences; dark matter; Elementary Particles; neutrinos; particle physics; statistical methods for physics; gravitational wave astronomy; LISA 2024

dark matter, SuperCDMS

Oviedo-Joekes Eugenia Psychosocial, sociocultural and behavioral determinants of health; Substance Use; person-centered care in addiction; injectable opioid agonist treatment; Harm reduction Any time / year round

Under the supervision of Dr. Eugenia Oviedo-Joekes, the student will collaborate with a multidisciplinary team of researchers and health care providers conducting mixed methods studies on person-centered care in addiction and public health; specifically, injectable opioid agonist treatment. This work is situated under the Program of Outcomes Research on Treatment with Injectables for Addiction... Read More

Oya Simon Privacy-enhancing technologies; Cybersecurity and privacy technologies; Signal processing for security and privacy; Encryption and cryptography; Mathematical optimization; Privacy; Computer Security; Anonymous communications; Machine learning security and privacy; Searchable encryption; Statistical analysis Any time / year round

Machine learning privacy, searchable encryption, anonymous communication systems, differential privacy

Paat Joseph Mathematical optimization; Programming in operational research (including linear and nonlinear programming); Mixed integer programming; Combinatorial optimization; Polyhedral Geometry; Convex optimization 2021, 2022

Using machine learning techniques to learn heuristics for mixed integer programming.

Extending continuous optimization algorithms to work for mixed integer problems.

Designing strong mixed integer relaxations for generic integer programs. 

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