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 | NID |
|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Dr. Meyer performed a detailed analysis of the behavior of two large computer storage systems. He found that in many cases simple opportunities to increase performance and compress data have been passed over in favor of more complex and costly alternatives. The data in this work stands as the largest file system metadata study performed to date. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Conn studied the factors that helped or hindered police officers as they tried to maintain life roles outside of policing. Personal standards were the strongest helping factor and work hours were the strongest hindering factor as they sought to achieve balance. This research helps us understand the work-life balance practices of police officers. | Doctor of Philosophy in Counselling Psychology (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Tewari completed his doctoral work in mathematics, focusing on research in the field of combinatorics, and spending many hours counting. He studied a prominent analogue of the ubiquitous Schur functions. These functions show up and have applications in fields as diverse as Informatics and Quantum theory. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. McAuliffe studied speech perception, the field in linguistics that focuses on how listeners are able to perceive and understand speech. Specifically, he focussed on perceptual learning, which refers to how listeners update their perceptual system in response to hearing speech. His findings contribute to cognitive models of speech perception. | Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD) |
| 2015 | Grounded at the Coast Salish village of Xway' Xw@y' in Stanley Park, Dr. Couture's research demonstrates how theatrical, cultural and tourist performances are used for cultural continuation and historiography. Ways of thinking embedded in the h@n'q'@m'in@m language and place names gave access to Indigenous histories obscured by the colonial archive. | Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Heng Hartse studied the reactions of English teachers to language useage they perceived as incorrect in student essays. He found that their perceptions of correctness, and their explanations for the evaluations they made, were highly subjective. This work has implications for anyone who works with second language writers and their texts. | Doctor of Philosophy in Teaching English as a Second Language (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Shiah studied integrated circuit design techniques for devices within a cellphone that sense motion. He developed a detailed design flow and verified the proposed techniques by successfully testing prototype chips. His findings can be applied to improve the accuracy and performance of the sensory systems while making them more energy efficient. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Lee studied the neural basis of stress and emotional behavior in adolescence. She found that neural and behavioural responses to stress exposure differ across the life span. Her research enhances our understanding of how stress and cannabis exposure affects the developing brain, behaviour, and the development of stress-related disease. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Nourbakhsh constructed electrical molecular decelerators for the first time in Canada, at UBC. Using these decelerators, called Stark Decelerators, the molecules can be slowed down and trapped, and then their interaction with light and matter can be accurately investigated. These results can help in making future molecular quantum computers. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Li studied the way in which the implantation of human placenta is regulated by a protein named activin. That protein is found where the fetus connects with the mother. The findings provide insights into the biology of placenta implantation, and can improve the diagnosis and treatment methods used in pregnancies with dysfunctional placenta. | |
| 2015 | Dr. Haitham identified strategies that can be used to accelerate the construction process in cave mining systems. He developed a method suitable for investigating how certain strategies affected the construction rates. He developed an approach that can be used to evaluate the cost of implementing decisions to accelerate construction. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mining Engineering (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Ardila Garcia examined the diversity of fungal parasites, or Microsporidia, in the Northwest Pacific ocean. He discovered and characterized the first case of a microsporidian infection in a marine roundworm. This discovery led to novel insights into the co-evolution of host-parasite interactions between microsporidian parasites and roundworms. | Doctor of Philosophy in Botany (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Muthukrishna developed theories to explain the evolution of the human brain and human social networks. He used mathematical and computational modeling techniques to construct theories, then tested them using psychological experiments. His findings suggest that human "smarts" are acquired, not hardwired, and the key lies in our social networks. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Shi studied the mechanisms contributing to virus-induced heart diseases. She investigate autophagy, a protein degradation pathway, and the critical role it plays in viral infection. Her research findings will aid in the development of novel anti-viral therapies, and contribute to improvements in the prognosis for viral-induced heart diseases. | Doctor of Philosophy in Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Read analyzed the windstorms that affected southwest BC from 1994 to 2012, and modeled related damage to the electrical grid. Power outages were found to be nearly certain for winds above 60 km/h, and outage frequency increased exponentially with peak wind speed. Outage forecasts help utilities improve grid resiliency, keeping our cell phones on. | Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Cai studied the 802.11 interference problem in WiFi networks, and showed a direct correlation between network congestion and wireless interference. He argued for trading some bandwidth for less interference and better fairness in 802.11 networks. He proposed a system to identify interference by correlating throughput changes of wireless devices. | Doctor of Philosophy in Computer Science (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Liu completed his doctoral studies in the field of Chemistry and he focussed on the mechanisms of gastritis and peptic ulcer. He discovered the structure of a new protein important for the survival of the bacteria, Helicobacter pylori, which trigger ulcers. His findings identified a new target for gastrointestinal drugs development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Zhang studied navigation systems in small robots. He developed the technology so that those mobile robots can learn to detect obstacles and people in a home environment, and avoid bumping into them. This research shows promising developments in the use of robots to assist the elderly and the differently abled in daily activities. | Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Scholes examined how American periodicals materially shaped the ethos of women's poetry in the mid-nineteenth century. She argues that this ethos directly impacted Emily Dickinson's representation of herself as a poet, and reveals Dickinson's life-long avoidance of publication as a commitment to specific, interpersonal, non-public, poetic address. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Yu studied econometric models that may have multiple equilibria. He developed an approach to detect multiplicity of equilibria directly from observed variables. His study advanced our understanding of the relationship between the equilibrium behaviour and distribution patterns of data. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Ford studied the properties of thousands of galaxy clusters in large astronomical surveys. She developed new techniques for measuring the amount and distribution of dark matter, using the gravitational bending of light rays. This work contributes to our understanding of structure formation in the universe. | Doctor of Philosophy in Physics (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Ruby completed her doctoral studies in the field of Electrical and Computer Engineering. She focussed on scheduling and resource allocation, which are important tasks in the radio resource management layer in wireless communication systems known as LTE. She proposed three uplink scheduling and resource allocation schemes for LTE-Advanced systems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical and Computer Engineering (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Ramogida developed new medical imaging agents for positron-emission tomography scans, to detect cancer and heart disease using radioactive metals. She studied methods to safely incorporate the metals into pharmaceuticals. These non-conventional metals have the potential to mitigate the global shortage of the metal used in current imaging agents. | Doctor of Philosophy in Chemistry (PhD) |
| 2015 | The marine gas dimethyl sulfide plays a role in natural climate regulation by bridging the atmospheric and oceanic sulfur cycles. Dr. Asher developed new methods to measure the variability and production of this gas across time and space. Her work advances our understanding of the marine sulfur cycle and informs climate change research. | Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography (PhD) |
| 2015 | Dr. Ark focused on introducing a method for estimating the variance components required for generalizability theory (GT) with ordered categorical ratings. This research provides a proof of concept of this method, called ordinal GT. It offer researchers a new statistical avenue for computing relative G-coefficients when using ordinal variables | Doctor of Philosophy in Measurement, Evaluation and Research Methodology (PhD) |