A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Dr. Beyer investigated the role of embodiment in young women's experience of sexual satisfaction. Research findings illustrated how young women's experiences of embodiment are intertwined not only with sexual satisfaction, but related aspects of sexuality including sexual desire and pleasure. | Doctor of Philosophy in Counselling Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Beaty studied human impacts and relationships with the ocean. She revealed broad negative effects of climate change on marine animals and identified traits and places that increase vulnerability. She also co-created a values-mapping project with Indigenous and local partners in the Salish Sea. Her work helps us steward life in the ocean. | Doctor of Philosophy in Zoology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Leepile evaluated the prevalence of household insecurity, undernutrition, and anemia among the Indigenous San people in rural Botswana. She also documented the communities' lived experiences, perceptions, and recommendations. Her findings will inform and guide targeted and culturally responsive nutrition and health policies for the San people. | Doctor of Philosophy in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Maslany investigated how affective valence influences visual attention scope. She examined the theory that positive valence broadens attention scope, and negative valence narrows it. In 5 experiments, she found no evidence for the theory. Thus, she proposed limits under which the influence of valence on visual attention scope does not occur. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Peña Díaz studied a group of molecules utilized by intestinal bacteria to perform cell-to-cell communication, and investigated their importance both during health and disease. His research will help in the development of novel therapeutics that could be used to manipulate bacterial behaviour as a method to treat infections. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Todd studied Canadian municipal parks and their contribution to the urban forest canopy. She provides recommendations on how parks can continue to meet recreational and cultural demands while balancing those with urban forestry objectives for a more resilient city. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Racz developed a method for retrieving a configuration of the subglacial drainage network and its changes throughout the melt season. This work contributes to a better understanding of subglacial hydrology which plays a crucial role in regulating glacier movement, and is, therefore, essential for predicting future sea level rise. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Mohammed studied the stiffness reconstruction problem using magnetic resonance imaging. He developed stiffness reconstruction methods with structured sparsity to improve the reliability and accuracy of stiffness reconstruction. These new methods improve the clinical feasibility of stiffness reconstruction for disease detection. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Woodward used genetic barcoding to study population dynamics of intestinal pathogens. She found that manipulating host protective barriers to infection determines overall disease outcome. This research provides insights into infection ecology and how the gut environment can shape the population-level diversity of outbreaks. | Doctor of Philosophy in Microbiology and Immunology (PhD) |
| 2023 | The crystal structures of lithium halides are dependent on a complex balance between competing forces at the atomic scale. Dr. Scheiber's research explores this complexity in detail using new theoretical and computational methods. The research contributes new tools and data to improve our understanding of these seemingly simple salts. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ji became the first UBC researcher in perovskite solar cell fabrication and successfully finished his four projects by making over 2500 devices in Ph.D program in the Department of Chemistry. He demonstrated creative works by incorporating chemical methods and thinking in developing this new-generation solar cell technology. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Cooke studied the practice of oboists giving the tuning-A in historical and contemporary orchestras. She found that oboists see tuning as not only a practical tool, but as a musical solo which can inspire other musical works like John Corigliano's Concerto. This research illuminates the history and beauty of an often-overlooked tradition. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Instrument (DMA) |
| 2023 | Dr. Skeeter investigated how greenhouse gases move into and out of two Arctic ecosystems with permafrost soils in the Mackenzie Delta Region using field observations and machine learning models | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Trinder showed that common and rare genetic variation can be used to predict an individual's risk of cardiovascular disease. He used these findings to implement genetic testing for cardiovascular disorders at St. Paul's Hospital's Healthy Heart Program. This work highlights the promise of genomic medicine for preventing and treating cardiac disease. | Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy (MDPhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Wells studied how our DNA faces internal obstacles and proposed a model featuring multiple repair pathways that work to tolerate this stress and prevent DNA damage. This work enhances our understanding of genome instability, a feature of cancer development and treatment. | Doctor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Oncology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Sato developed robotic platforms to analyze heterogeneous chemical reactions and developed a new analytical methodology for monitoring nanocluster synthesis. This work enables greater understanding of reaction mechanisms, helping to optimize these challenging-to-sample reactions and is actively being applied in industry. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Jo studied inviscid damping phenomena in mathematical fluid dynamics. He developed a derivative loss minimizing methodology that captures the extra stabilizing mechanism around certain stationary states of the governing fluid systems that are not inherently energy dissipative. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ge developed novel drugs targeting GluN2B-containing NMDA receptors and demonstrated that these drugs improved learning and memory in rat models. This research generated a potential pharmacotherapy for various learning disabilities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Neuroscience (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Perez Montelongo studied South African photography since the 1960s, with a focus on black and white analog technologies. She investigated photographic practices that put a question mark on colonial ideas about the genre of landscape photography, both in South Africa and beyond. Her dissertation expanded the scope of the history of photography. | Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Pecanha analyzes the effects of a public policy that decreased violence in poor neighborhoods in the city of Rio de Janeiro on learning gains, formal employment and incarceration. He also discusses the impacts of localized temperature shocks on mortality. His research illuminates the role of urban policies in dealing with urban issues. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Arshadi studied and improved the performance of high-power DC-DC power supplies for Electric Vehicle battery charging applications. These improvements enable battery chargers to be able to cope with the newer technological requirement that batteries are placing on EV chargers today. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Gysbers calculated the properties of atomic nuclei using a first principles description of interacting protons and neutrons. He resolved a long-standing discrepancy between theory and experiment in rates of beta decays and improved predictions of nuclear reactions for comparison to future and ongoing experiments. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Duong's doctoral studies debunked the myth of glutamine being an essential amino acid in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell cultures producing therapeutic antibodies. Her research has shown how CHO cells could use asparagine as a replacement for glutamine and how these two amino acids were co-conditionally essential in culture media. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemical and Biological Engineering (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Wang investigated how YAP1 gene regulates the differentiation of progenitor cells in the pancreas. He provided new evidence that manipulation of YAP1 expression controls pancreatic size and function during embryogenesis. His research shed light on the future development of cell therapy for type 1/2 diabetes and pancreatic cancer. | Doctor of Philosophy in Cell and Developmental Biology (PhD) |
| 2023 | Dr. Ye designed a series of nanocellulose-based gel conductors for a variety of sophisticated applications. His study would advance the creation of biodegradable electronics, relieving the environmental pollution caused by discarded electronics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |