News

Congratulations to the following UBC Chemistry graduate students for being award recipients!

Indigenous Graduate Fellowship

The University of British Columbia offers multi-year fellowships to master's and doctoral Indigenous students. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition administered by the Faculty of Graduate and...

Assistant Professor Nadine Borduas-Dedekind spoke to CBC News Vancouver meteorologist and science reporter, Johanna Wagstaffe, about how wildfire smoke undergoes chemical reactions as it travels farther from its source.

Watch the video here.

The Department of Chemistry was honored to host Dr. Paul Hébert, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), in a landmark visit today. This marks the first time in the department's history that a CIHR President has visited, underscoring the growing recognition of UBC Chemistry's contributions to scientific research and innovation in the health sciences sector.

During the visit, UBC Chemistry...

Researchers from the Berlinguette Group have demonstrated that electrochemically loading a solid metal target with deuterium fuel can boost nuclear fusion rates. Large-scale magnetic confinement fusion—which puts plasmas under extreme temperatures and pressure—is being widely explored as a method for clean energy generation, the researchers took a different approach. They loaded a metal target made of palladium with high...

Collaboration accelerates AI-driven discovery of advanced battery materials.

A ground-breaking partnership between the University of British Columbia’s Hein Lab, Seoul National University (SNU), and the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) is pushing the boundaries of battery energy storage research. Through developing self-driving laboratories, the teams aim to revolutionize material discoveries for high-performance battery electrolyte...

Mahsa Zarei, a PhD student in Professor Ed Grant's group, has been awarded the prestigious SAS Graduate Student Award, also known as the Barbara Stull Graduate Student Award. This award is given to up to two graduate students in recognition of outstanding research in the area of spectroscopy. 

Zarei has developed innovative Raman-...

The four best high school chemists in Canada are gearing up for the International Chemistry Olympiad in Dubai this July, and they’re getting ready with an intensive 10-day training camp at UBC’s Department of Chemistry.

The camp includes hours of courses, labs, and problem-solving sessions each day, where students are learning everything from coating maple leaf bottles in silver to changing fire colors.

Last year, Canada won...

When Seyed Amirhossein Nasseri began his graduate studies at UBC, the destination wasn’t entirely clear—but the direction was.

“I didn’t always know what I wanted to research,” Nasseri recalls. “What I did know was that I was most drawn to scientific puzzles at the interface of chemistry and biology.”

That instinct led him to a PhD focused on uncovering how bacteria consume sugar molecules and how that knowledge could be harnessed to influence complex microbial communities,...

Congratulations to Melika J. for receiving first place for best oral presentation and Ken H. for receiving third for best poster presentation at the Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference (WCUCC) at UBC Okanagan! This three-day conference highlights excellence in undergraduate research, while providing unique learning experiences for attendees.

UBC Vancouver is pleased to be named the host for WCUCC 2026.