Natural sciences

This division comprises research and experimental development in natural sciences. Natural sciences refer to scientific disciplines concerned with understanding, exploring or developing the natural world, in the field of natural sciences, which includes mathematics and statistics; computer and information sciences; physical sciences; chemical sciences; earth and related environmental sciences; biological sciences; and other natural sciences. Research consists of systematic investigation carried by means of experiment or analysis to achieve a scientific or technological advance such as acquiring new knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts. Experimental development consists of new or substantially improved goods, services, systems, methods or processes.

Sub-Categories

Mathematics and statistics

Computer and information sciences

Physical sciences

Chemical sciences

Biological sciences

Other natural sciences

Research Centres, Institutes & Clusters

Biodiversity frontiers in a rapidly changing world

Graduate Degree Programs

Master of Science in Medical Genetics (MSc)

The UBC Department of Medical Genetics is an inspiring and productive community of scholars of genetics and genomics; an outstanding provider of knowledge, technical expertise, and compassionate care for our patients. The Department is composed of dozens of faculty members at the forefront of their…

Master of Science in Medical Physics (MSc)

Medical physicists are health care professionals with specialized training in the medical applications of physics. Their work often involves the use of x-rays and accelerated charged particles, radioactive substances, ultrasound, magnetic and electric fields, infra-red and ultraviolet light, heat…

Master of Science in Microbiology and Immunology (MSc)

The Microbiology and Immunology programme includes the study of bacteria, fungi, viruses, parasites as well as the immune system. Students can investigate the ecology, evolution and environments of microorganisms, the diseases they cause, the microbiome and its influence on the immune system and…

Master of Science in Neuroscience (MSc)

The Graduate Program in Neuroscience strives to educate and support graduate students as they expand the breadth and depth of their knowledge about the brain through enriching research experiences. The program embraces principles of equity, diversity and inclusion and recognizes and accommodates…

Master of Science in Oceanography (MSc)

Oceanographers investigate both fundamental and applied problems relating to the physics, mathematics, biology, chemistry, and geology of the sea, often working across traditional academic disciplines. Research carried out both independently and in collaboration with federal government laboratories…

Master of Science in Oceans and Fisheries (MSc)

The Program is designed to train marine and freshwater scientists to undertake basic and applied research that will help foster healthy marine and freshwater ecosystems and sustainable resource use. Students broaden their interdisciplinary expertise and acquire professional experience in areas…

Master of Science in Physics (MSc)

The Department of Physics & Astronomy at UBC is noted for the excellence of its research and its high academic standards and integrity. We are constantly rated as one of the top Physics & Astronomy programs in the world. Each year, we offer 20 to 30 graduate level Physics…

Master of Science in Plant Science (MSc)

Plant Science graduate program offers advanced study in applied plant biology, with a commitment to development of sustainable managed agroecosystems. Our graduate program offers opportunities for advanced studies in basic and applied research, leading to M.Sc. or Ph.D. degrees, in plant production…

Master of Science in Resources, Environment and Sustainability (MSc)

The Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (IRES) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is a problem-focused and curiosity-driven interdisciplinary research institute and graduate program, with interest and expertise in a wide range of topics under the realm of environment…

Master of Science in Soil Science (MSc)

A collaboration between the Faculty of Land and Food Systems and Faculty of Forestry, the inter-faculty Soil Science Graduate Program offers opportunities for advanced study and research leading to MSc and PhD degrees. Areas of study include biometeorology, forest nutrition and nutrient cycling,…

Master of Science in Statistics (MSc)

Established in 1983, the Department of Statistics at UBC is internationally renowned for its excellence in research and the high calibre of its faculty members. Our programs offers students different options for pursuing their interests and professional goals. We currently have programs at both…

Master of Science in Zoology (MSc)

Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia is one of the strongest and most broadly based life science departments in Canada, with a scope that spans from molecules to cells, whole organisms, populations, and communities. It is home to approximately forty highly funded, well-…

UBC Researchers

C

Chen, Carol

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (non-G+PS member)

Pediatric cancer; Epigenetics and epigenomics; Mechanisms of carcinogenesis; Brain Cancer; Brain development; Epigenetics; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Developmental biology

Chen, Carol

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Pediatric cancer; Epigenetics and epigenomics; Mechanisms of carcinogenesis; Brain Cancer; Brain development; Epigenetics; Neurodevelopmental disorders; Developmental biology

Chen, Jiahua

Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Statistical theory and modeling; empirical likelihood; finite mixture model; sample survey; asymptotic theory; imputation

Chen, Jingyi

Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Algebraic and differential geometry; Differential Geometry, Partial Differential Equations

Cheung, Wai Lung

Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Global change biology; Ecological impacts of climate change; climate change; Marine Ecosystems; sustainability; biodiversity; Interdisciplinary

Christensen, Villy

Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Fisheries management; Global change biology; Ecosystem function; Ecosystem modelling

Chua, Romeo

School of Kinesiology, Faculty of Education

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Other natural sciences; Human sensorimotor control; Visual-motor control; Sensorimotor adaptation

Ciernia, Annie

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Biochemistry; Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Autism; Brain development; Epigenetics; Gene-Environment Interactions; Neurodevelopmental disorders

Cockle, Kristina

Faculty of Forestry

Faculty (non-G+PS member)

Conibear, Elizabeth

Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Other basic medicine and life sciences; Protein trafficking in cell biology; Molecular genetics; Functional genomics; Membranes; Enzymes and Proteins; Vesicle Trafficking; Molecular Genetics; Neurodegenerative diseases; Protein Palmitoylation; Cell Signaling and Cancer

Coombs, Daniel

Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Mathematical biology; Cellular immunology; Complex physical systems; Epidemiology (except nutritional and veterinary epidemiology); Cell Signaling and Infectious and Immune Diseases; Cell biophysics; Disease models; Epidemiology; Immune cell signalling; Mathematics

Cornelis, Jean Thomas

Applied Biology, Faculty of Land and Food Systems

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Earth and related environmental sciences; Pedology; Biogeochemistry; Soil-Plant Interactions

Correia, Miguel

Faculty of Science

Faculty (non-G+PS member)

Marine ecology (including marine ichthyology); marine conservation; Syngnathid biology; marine ecology

Cronk, Quentin Charles

Department of Botany, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Plant biology; botany; taxonomy; systematics; genomics

d

d'Arcy, Mitch

Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Earth and related environmental sciences; Geomorphology; Climate/palaeoclimate; Sedimentology; Geochronology; remote sensing

D

Dai, Carrie

Faculty of Science

Postdoctoral Fellow

Human computer interaction; human-computer interaction; Accessibility; Social computing; Aging and dementia; Financial technology

Daley, Denise

Division of Respiratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Bioinformatics; Asthma; Complex Trait Genetics; Epigenetics; gene-gene and gene-environment interactions; Genetic Diseases; genetic epidemiology; Genetics of Aging; statistical genetics; Susceptibility Genes

Damascelli, Andrea

Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Electronic and magnetic properties of condensed matter and supraconductivity; Electronic Structure of Quantum Materials

Dao Duc, Khanh

Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Genomics; Mathematical biology; Neurocognitive patterns and neural networks; Agricultural spatial analysis and modelling; combine mathematical,computational and statistical tools to study fundamental biological processes; regulation and determinants of gene expression and translation; Machine Learning for Biological Imaging and Microscopy; Database development and management; Biological and Artificial Neural Networks for geometric representation

Dee, Derek

Food, Nutrition & Health, Faculty of Land and Food Systems

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Enzymes (including kinetics and mechanisms, and biocatalyst); Proteomics; Nanofabrication, growth and self-assembly; Food chemistry (including fermentation); Protein Folding; protein stability; protein aggregation; protein engineering; funtional amyloid; bacterial amyloid; protein nanofibrils; food proteins; legume proteins; aspartic proteases; psychrophilic enzymes; precision fermentation; Biophysics; food chemistry; alternative food proteins; optical tweezers; single molecule force spectroscopy; cryoEM

DeMarco, Mari

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (non-G+PS member)

Other medical sciences; Analytical chemistry, n.e.c.; Biochemistry; Biomarkers; Neurodegenerative diorders; Alzheimer's disease; Frontotemporal degeneration; Clinical mass spectrometry; Parkinson's disease; Lewy body dementia; ALS

Dennis, Jessica

Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Bioinformatics; Genetic medicine; Complex Trait Genetics; genetic epidemiology; statistical genetics; Psychiatric conditions; neurodegenerative disease; Precision Health; Administrative health data; Electronic health records; Machine Learning

Di Matteo, Olivia

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Quantum information, computation and communication; Quantum computing: compilation, circuits and algorithms; Tomography and characterization; Open-source quantum software

Dierker, Steve

Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Physical sciences; Collective dynamics of condensed matter systems; Dependence on reduced dimensionality, strong interactions, disorder, and mesoscale structure

Dijols, Sarah

Faculty of Science

Postdoctoral Fellow

Mathematics and statistics; representations of reductive groups over p-adic fields; Number theory; Langlands Program

Ding, Jiarui

Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Bioinformatics; Basic medicine and life sciences; Computational Biology; Machine Learning; Probabilistic Deep Learning; single-cell genomics; visualization; Cancer biology; Computational Immunology; Food Allergy; neuroscience

Doherty, Jeff

Faculty of Science

Postdoctoral Fellow

host-parasite interactions; multidisciplinary research; host manipulation; ethology; Disease Ecology;

Donner, Simon

Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Atmospheric sciences; Oceanography; Other media and communication; Climate Science; climate change impacts; Climate policy; Coastal Ecosystems; Marine Environment; Climate modelling and prediction; Science communication; Net-zero emissions; Coral reefs

E

Eddy, Rachel

Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Cardiorespiratory medicine and hematology; Medical and biomedical engineering; Artificial intelligence (AI); Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI); Hyperpolarized 129Xe; Computed tomography (CT); Pulmonary imaging; Lung structure-function; Lung health; Respiratory disease

Eltis, Lindsay

Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Biochemistry; Genomics; Immunology; Microbiology; Bacterial catabolism of steroids and lignin; biocatalyst development; Enzymes and Proteins; Metabolism (Living Organisms); Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Enns, James

Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Behavioural neuroscience of reward and motivation; attention; action kinematics; social perception; perceptual development

Eskelson, Bianca

Department of Forest Resources Management, Faculty of Forestry

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Natural resource management; Forest Biometrics; Forest Modelling; Disturbance Effects; Management Effects; Climate Effects

Evans, William

Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Algorithms; theoretical computer science; Computer Sciences and Mathematical Tools; computational geometry; graph drawing; program compression; theoretical computer science; Algorithms, Theoretical Computer Science, Computer Sciences and Mathematical Tools, Computational geometry, Graph drawing, Program compression, Theoretical computer science

Everhart, Avery

Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Health geography; Population geography; Geographic information system (GIS and GPS) applications; Health and community services; Bioinformatics, n.e.c.; Social and cultural geography; Sex and gender-based analysis; Ethical, legal, and social issues in health, health systems and health research; Gender and health relationship; Health information systems (including surveillance); Geographic Information Science; Medical Geography; Demography & Population Studies; Critical Data Studies, Critical GIS & Digital Geographies; Transgender Studies; Intersectionality in Empirical Social Science; Health Services Research & Access to Healthcare; Community-Based Participatory Research; Feminist & Queer Theories; Measuring & Combatting STructural Racism

F

Farrugia Drakard, Veronica

Faculty of Science

Postdoctoral Fellow

Marine ecology (including marine ichthyology); Biodiversity; Phycology (including marine grasses); benthic ecology; Phycology; eco-engineering; kelp physiology

Feng, James

Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Chemical engineering; Mathematics and statistics; Biophysics; Complex fluids; Fluid mechanics; Mathematical biology

Finbloom, Joel

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Drug discovery, design and delivery; Biologically active molecules; Nanochemistry; Antimicrobial resistance; Nanomedicine; nanomedicine; Chemical Biology; drug delivery; Pharmaceutical Sciences; Infectious disease; Bacterial Biofilms; Microbiome; Probiotics; Antibiotic resistance

Fiore, William

Faculty of Science

Postdoctoral Fellow

Astronomical and space sciences; Astrophysics; Radio Astronomy; Pulsars; Gravitational waves; Pulsar Timing Arrays

Fischer, Monika

Department of Botany, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Mycology; mycology; fire-adapted fungi; fungal community ecology; fungal genetics & development; fungal metabolism

Fisher, Cynthia

Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (non-G+PS member)

Basic medicine and life sciences; Medical and biomedical engineering; Biological sciences; Health sciences; Stem cells and regenerative medicine; Epigenetics and chromatin level regulation of gene expression; Hematopoiesis and immunology

Folk, Joshua

Department of Physics & Astronomy, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Physical sciences; 2D materials and Vanderwaals heterostructures; Quantum electronics; Thermodynamics of quantum systems; Strongly correlated phenomena; Topological phenomena; Quantum transport

Ford, Nancy

Department of Oral Biological & Medical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Medical physics; Medical biotechnology diagnostics (including biosensors); Dental materials and equipment; micro-computed tomography; physiological gating; contrast agents; models of respiratory disease; image-based measurements; dental imaging; x-ray imaging

Foster, Leonard

Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Biochemistry; Genomics; Agriculture; antigen presentation; Bioinformatics; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Biotechnology; Cell Signaling and Infectious and Immune Diseases; Honey bees; host-pathogen interactions; Immune System; Microbiology; Proteomics; Systems Biology

Frankel, Adam

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Enzymes (including kinetics and mechanisms, and biocatalyst); Other basic medicine and life sciences; Protein Biochemistry; arginine methylation; Histones; Nucleosomes; post-translational modifications; Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms; Organic Molecules and Biomolecules; Bioactive Molecules; Proteins; Chemical Biology; drug discovery; Target Engagement; Amino acids

Friedman, Jan Marshall

Department of Medical Genetics, Faculty of Medicine

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Other clinical medicine; Genetic medicine; Genomics; Health counselling; Application of whole genome sequencing to diagnose genetic disease; Birth defects epidemiology; Clinical genomics; Developmental Genetics; Genetics and Heredity; Neurofibromatosis

Friedman, Joel

Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Computer and information sciences; Algebraic Graph Theory; Combinatorics; Computer Science Theory

Frommel, Andrea

Applied Biology, Faculty of Land and Food Systems

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Animal physiology, environmental stress; Sustainable Aquaculture; climate change; Early development in fish; Alternative feeds in aquaculture; Fish physiology

G

Gantois, Joséphine

Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Environment and natural resources economics; Ecological applications; Sociology; Human Dimensions of Biodiversity Conservation; environmental economics; Applied Ecology; Rural Sociology; Causal inference; Applied Deep Learning

Gao, Lucy

Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Statistics; Selective Inference; Inference x Unsupervised Learning; Statistics x Optimization

Garbi, Rafeef

Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science

Faculty (G+PS eligible/member)

Bioinformatics; Electrical engineering, computer engineering, and information engineering; Medical and biomedical engineering; Artificial Intelligence; Biomedical Engineering; Biomedical Technologies; Computer Vision; Deep Learning; image analysis; Imaging; Machine Learning; Medical Image Computing

Student & Alumni Stories