Paul Harrison
Professor Emeritus
George Haughn
Research Interests My laboratory uses molecular genetics and the seed coat epidermal cell of Arabidopsis thaliana as a model to investigate plant cell wall biosynthesis, structure and function. We also run a TILLING service described below. Mechanisms underlying cell differentiation. The seed coat is a specialized tissue derived from ovule integuments. In some species, including Arabidopsis thaliana, large quantities of polysaccharide mucilage (pectin) and secondary cell wall are produced by seed coat epidermal cells at specific times during differentiation. Because these modifications are not required for viability, the Arabidopsis seed coat epidermal cells represent a unique dispensable tissue that can be […]
Michael Hawkes
Teaching & Learning, Systematics & Phylogenetics, Marine Biology, Algae. Research Interests I have broad natural history interests with a special fondness for marine, mountain, and desert ecosystems. Since 1972 my marine research has focused on the seaweed flora of British Columbia (natural history, systematics, and reproductive biology). Part of this work has involved conducting intertidal and subtidal surveys along many portions of the British Columbia coast as well as in Washington, California, New Zealand and Australia. I spent three years working for the University of Auckland’s Leigh Marine Laboratory. As a biologist I am especially concerned with loss of organismal diversity, […]
Ljerka Kunst
Research Interests Fatty acids and lipids are essential components of plant cells with diverse structural and signaling functions. They also form waxy cuticles on the plant surface required for plant protection against water loss, pathogens and insects, and serve as storage reserves in the seed that are exploited for human nutrition, used as industrial feedstocks, lubricants, and fuel. Research in my lab is directed toward understanding the following aspects of plant fatty acid and lipid metabolism: 1. Biosynthesis and secretion of cuticular wax. The cuticle is a thin hydrophobic layer which covers the outermost surface of the primary aerial tissues of land […]
Jack Maze
Jack Reiser Maze was born in San Jose in 1937 and grew up in Hollister, California. His mother, Marguerite, was a schoolteacher and his father, Theodore (a.k.a “Dud”) was a mechanic. Jack did his undergraduate studies at Humboldt State University (College at the time) in northern California, received his MSc (MS) at the University of Washington, working with C.L. (“Hitchy”) Hitchcock, and his PhD at the University of California, Davis, with John Tucker, “Old Man of the Oaks.” Jack had the good fortune to meet Ellie Spencer in college, and they were married in 1961. They moved to the University of […]
Kathy Nomme
Research Interests My role in the Biology Program is to teach. This encompasses the many elements of teaching biology to undergraduate students; curriculum design and implementation, course administration and coordination, and graduate student preparation for teaching. I have adopted a scholarly approach to teaching and have initiated research projects to investigate elements of student learning. My research interests include investigating the effectiveness of curriculum revisions and active-learning strategies on student attitudes and student adjustment to higher education. In conjunction with colleagues we have developed assessment tools designed to measure changes in student attitudes towards Biology as a Science and concept inventories […]
Ellen Rosenberg
Instructor Emeritus Contact Information ellenr@mail.ubc.ca
I.E.P. Taylor
Professor Emeritus Contact Information iain.taylor@botany.ubc.ca
F.J.R. Taylor
Professor Emeritus Contact Information maxt@eos.ubc.ca
Roy Turkington
Selected Publications Note that PDFs of most papers are available on Research Gate 1 Selected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences as “one of the 10 most impactful papers during the 12 months, July 2014 – June 2015.” 2 Selected for F1000Prime 3 The 2010 Journal of Vegetation Science Editors’ Award for an outstanding paper 4 J. Stan Rowe award of Canadian Botanical Association for best student paper 5 J. Stan Rowe award of Canadian Botanical Association for best student paper 6 Selected for F1000Prime 7 One of the top 100 most influential papers published by the British Ecological Society (1913-2012)
Kathryn Zeiler
Associate Professor of Teaching Contact Information zeilerk@mail.ubc.ca
Wayne Maddison
Research Interests My research arose from a fascination with the diversity of forms and behaviours of jumping spiders, which led to systematics, which led to phylogenetic theory and computer programming. My work continues to be both empirical, on spiders, and theoretical, on the use of phylogeny in evolutionary inference. Team Members U. Garcilazo CruzK. Marathe
Reinhard Jetter
Research Interests The plant surface – a vast stage for interactions… These are the biological questions that motivate the research in my lab. In order to answer them, we employ molecular genetic, microscopic and eco-physiological (as well as biochemical) techniques to study plant surfaces. Depending on the individual research question, we use Arabidopsis thaliana and an array of other plant species as models for our studies. In particular, we investigate cuticular waxes, which coat most above-ground plant organs. We explore both the biological functions of these waxes and the molecular biology underlying their formation. We investigate wax functions such as their central physiological […]
Patrick Keeling
Research Interests Research in the lab is generally related to the molecular evolution and cell biology of eukaryotes, in particular the protists (i.e., eukaryotes that are not animals, fungi, or plants). Protists are mostly single celled organisms, but are many are extremely complex and sophisticated despite their small size. Protists also represent the greatest part of eukaryotic diversity, although most protists groups are very poorly studied, especially at the molecular level. We use molecular biology, microscopy, and increasingly use genome wide analyses such as EST sequencing and genome sequence surveys to study a number of questions in different lineages of protists. […]
Mary Berbee
Research Interests Fungi can cause plant diseases, serve as mycorrhizal partners, and decompose litter and woody debris. Berbee lab research is directed towards understanding how fungi evolved and adapted to interdependence with land plants. Berbee lab projects, funded by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canadia include: • Analyzing evolution of the powerful cell wall degrading enzymes that fungi secrete as an adaptation to plant-based nutrition, by using genome sequencing of early-diverging fungi. This research has the potential to reveal novel enzymes for cellulose decomposition with potential for industrial applications. • Improving estimates of geological ages of fungi by […]
Jörg Bohlmann
Research Interests Plants are sessile organisms which have the ability to survive under constantly changing environmental conditions over lifespans of several weeks to hundreds of years. To cope with biotic or abiotic stress, plants have evolved a complex specialized metabolism which contains hundreds of thousands of unique small molecules. Many of these bioactive molecules have beneficial applications for humans. Through genomic, proteomic, metabolomic and biochemical approaches our laboratory is exploring two aspects of plant specialized metabolism: (1) the role it plays in plant defense, and (2) how its genes and enzymes can be prospected for metabolic engineering of high-value bioproducts. The foundation of our research program has concentrated primarily on the terpenoid pathway, […]
Laura Wegener Parfrey
Research Interests Research in the Parfrey lab focuses on the microbial ecology of eukaryotic microbes (protists) and bacteria. We work primarily in two distinct ecosystems: the mammalian gut and coastal ecosystems. Our gut microbiome research combines descriptive research with manipulative experiments to ask what is the ‘normal’ community of eukaryotic microbes (aka “parasites”) residing in humans and other mammals, and what are the consequences of losing our microbial diversity? Along coastal British Columbia we are investigating how water column and biofilm microbes colonize marine hosts (invertebrates, seaweed, and sea grass), and how these host-associated microbes impact host and ecosystem health. Team […]
Loren Rieseberg
Research Interests My lab employs population genomic approaches, computational methods, and field and greenhouse studies to study plant adaptation and speciation. We are especially interested in how gene flow, both within and between species, influences these processes. We also study factors that affect rates of gene flow, including reproductive barriers such as niche differentiation, phenological isolation, and pollen competition, as well as chromosomal inversions that impede gene flow mainly by suppressing recombination. On a more practical level, we integrate genomic and phenotypic data with results from laboratory and greenhouse experiments to identify evolutionary changes that causally drive plant invasions, mine natural […]
Jonathan Davies
Research Interests My research lies at the interface between ecology and evolutionary biology, making use of the information contained within phylogenetic trees to provide a bridge between them. The integration of phylogenetic approaches in ecology has been transformative, and has given rise to new sub-disciplines in biodiversity science, invasion biology, climate change biology, emerging infectious disease research and community ecology. Selected Publications For past and current publications visit this link: https://phyloecology.ca/publications/ Davies, T. J. [2021]. Ecophylogenetics redux. Ecology Letters, doi.org/10.1111/ele.13682. Ssebuliba*, E., & Davies, T. J. [2021]. Assessing the phylogenetic host breadth of millet pathogens and its implication for disease spillover. Ecological […]
Lacey Samuels
Research Interests The Samuels lab studies how plant cells secrete their cell walls, both the polysaccharides and specialized cell wall components such as lipids and lignin. Our approach is to integrate cell biology with molecular biology and biochemistry to put cell wall biosynthesis and secretion into a cellular context. All plant growth, including agricultural and forestry production, is based on the organized assembly of plant cells into tissues, organs and whole plants. The plant cell wall determines the shape of the cell and connects cells into tissues and higher order structures, thus plant growth depends on cell wall production. In addition, terrestrial plants have evolved specialized […]
Naomi Fast
Research Interests Our research strives to understand genome evolution in single-celled eukaryotes, focusing on changes in genome size. As genomes are reduced in size, there are likely to be changes in the amounts of non-coding material. Of particular interest is the retention, reduction and/or removal of introns. Introns interrupt genes, and are removed from mRNA by a large macromolecular protein and RNA complex called the spliceosome. In metazoans, where genomes tend to be quite large, introns can be quite long (sometimes several kb), and the spliceosome is extremely large with over a hundred proteins. In contrast, the yeast Saccharomyces possesses a […]
Philippe Tortell
Research Interests I am a sea-going oceanographer with broad interests in marine biogeochemical cycles. Current work in my research group focuses on understanding the biological, chemical and physical factors regulating oceanic primary productivity and the concentration of climate active gases including carbon dioxide (CO2), dimethylsulfide (DMS), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). My group has made significant contributions to the development and implementation of new measurement techniques based on sea-going mass spectrometry, optical measurements and tracer-based rate incubation experiments. Our Research includes controlled laboratory studies and extensive field campaigns to a number of ocean regions. Current field areas of interest include […]
Sean Graham
Research Interests I have mentored 27 graduate students in my lab to date, and currently supervise six PhD and two MSc students. My lab group works on a broad variety of problems in plant systematics and evolution. Our work includes inference of the major details of the land-plant portion of the ‘Tree of Life,’ comparative genomics, and inferring the phylogeny and evolution of understudied plant lineages: Comparative genomics of green & mycoheterotrophic plantsOngoing work includes studies of plastid genome dissolution in mycoheterotrophic plants—plants that obtain some or all of their nutrition from fungal partners—and comparative transcriptome studies of these plants and their […]
Xin Li
Research Interests The long-term goal of our research program is to understand the molecular mechanisms of plant innate immunity. We study plant defense against pathogen infection in the context of gene regulation, protein-protein interaction and signal transduction using the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Our program aims to discover new regulatory components of plant disease resistance and to elucidate the biochemical functions of a number of regulators we have already identified. Understanding the innate ability of plants to defend themselves against pathogen infection promises to revolutionize disease control practices in our fields using environmentally friendly strategies. A model depicting the involvement of the […]
Liang Song
Research Interests 1. Abscisic acid-regulated gene expression networks Animals often employ a fight-or-flight strategy when facing challenges. By contrast, plants handle challenges on site through many molecular, morphological, and physiological solutions. The plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is a nexus molecule of stress responses and plant development. Without proper ABA responses, plants would make unwise decisions such as germinating prematurely or failing to preserve water and other resources during a drought. The ABA responses are orchestrated through the expression of thousands of genes and the regulation of these gene products. Our lab studies ABA-regulated gene expression, and the specific regulation in […]
Sean Michaletz
Research Interests We are interested in the physical processes linking environmental variation to plant physiology, and how this “scales up” to influence higher-level patterns and processes. To investigate these topics, we use interdisciplinary approaches that draw upon fields such as physics, chemistry, engineering, and geoscience. Our work often involves development of mechanistic theory and models, which are parameterized, tested, and refined using data from the laboratory and the field. We also focus on long-term monitoring of climate, ecophysiology, and vegetation dynamics in our growing network of Forest MacroSystems sites located around the world. You can find out more about our research […]
Brian Leander
Research Interests Our research concentrates on the discovery and characterization of marine organismal diversity and comparative studies of novel morphological systems in predatory eukaryotes (i.e., marine zoology & protistology). We are fundamentally interested in the diversity and evolution of organisms, particularly traits associated with feeding, locomotion and symbiotic interactions. By addressing specific hypotheses about trait evolution using comparative molecular methods, we study the innovations and transformations associated with broad patterns of organismal diversity (e.g., convergent evolution over vast phylogenetic distances). This exploratory approach is motivated by the thrill of discovery, the beautiful and the bizarre, and the yearning to build a […]
Abel Rosado
Research Interests Out of over a quarter of a million plant species, each of which contains complex and dynamic chemical make over, a mere fraction of one percent (1%) has been adequately investigated by western science. Yet, the human experimentation and exploration of plant medicines among Indigenous populations over millennia has created an extended catalog of approximately 20000 plant species with health benefits that represents the main source of medicine for most of the World. My laboratory is part of a cross-disciplinary research cluster encompassing Anthropology, Ethnobiology, plant and food sciences, analytical chemistry, and clinical nutrition working in collaboration with private companies […]
Curtis Suttle
Research Interests There has been increasing interest in the biology and ecology of viruses and other pathogens that infect microalgae. Viruses that infect bacteria and phytoplankton play a key role in the dynamics of organisms and nutrients in marine and freshwater ecosystems, and consequently also affect nutrient and energy cycling. A primary research focus of my laboratory is to understand the biology and ecology of viruses that infect microalgae and cyanobacteria. Research interests include 1) discerning the effect of viruses on primary productivity and phytoplankton population dynamics; 2) isolating and characterizing novel viruses from marine environments; 3) developing molecular approaches for […]
Geoffrey Wasteneys
Research Interests 1) The control of microtubule dynamics by microtubule-associated proteins.2) Microtubule polymer activities and the spatial organization of cortical microtubule arrays.3) The function of cortical microtubule arrays in the mechanical properties of cellulosic cell walls. Team Memebers Laryssa Halat, PhD CandidateMeng Li, PhD CandidateAida Rakei, PhD CandidateJayamini Jayawardhane, PhD CandidateSean Ritter, PhD CandidateBreanne Bali, MSc CandidateDonglei Li, MSc CandidateChak-Chung (Tommy) Kuo, undergraduate researcher Selected Publications For all past and current publications visit: https://wasteneyslab.wixsite.com/ubcwasteneys/publications Marcus Woodley, Adam Mulvihill, Miki Fujita, Geoffrey Wasteneys (2018) Exploring microtubule-dependent cellulose-synthase-complex movement with high precision particle tracking. Plants 7, 53, doi:10.3390/plants7030053 Ruan Y, Halat L, Khan D, […]
Michelle Tseng
Research Interests Plankton & Freshwater Ecosystems Insect Communities Team Members Selected Publications Google Scholar Profile: link* denotes undergraduate coauthors, please email for pdf requests
Jeannette Whitton
Research Interests I am a plant evolutionary biologist with interests that span the areas of population genetics, phylogenetics and speciation. For me, questions surrounding the nature of plant species are boundlessly interesting – How do populations of a species, scattered across hundreds or thousands of kilometers, maintain their genetic and evolutionary integrity? How do factors such as changes in chromosome numbers and breeding system influence the ecological and genetic interactions of populations that differ in these traits? How does natural selection influence the divergence of populations and groups of populations when gene flow still occurs between diverging units? These are just […]
Quentin Cronk
Research Interest Our lab integrates comparative genomics, molecular developmental biology and evolutionary biology to study plant form. We are interested in the how different morphologies evolve in plants, as well as the functional significance of morphological differences between species. Our model organisms for this include the Leguminosae (floral morphology) and black cottonwood, Populus trichocarpa (adaptive evolution of trees). Next generation sequencing of whole genomes and transcriptomes is an important part of our work. Funding for research in our lab comes from the Discovery Grants programme of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and Genome Canada. Team Members […]
Brett Couch
Teaching Interests Approach to Teaching: As an instructor in the departments of Botany and Zoology at the University of British Columbia, I am part of the large teams that teach introductory biology lectures and labs. As well, I am responsible for second year Botany and eukaryotic microbiology labs. I have been involved in curriculum development, designing the lab for eukaryotic microbiology and writing the lab manual as well as development of activities and case studies as part of the flexible learning initiative in BIOL121. I have published case studies through Pearson to support their texts and through the National Center for […]
Maryam Moussavi
Teaching Interests As an instructor in biology I aim to engage, intrigue, and help my students critically observe life around us. I strive to create an inclusive environment, where students feel comfortable to think out loud, engage in problem solving, and be actively involved in the process of their own learning. My hope is that my students leave my class armed with a set of tools that will help them to better evaluate biological data and to communicate their findings through logical scientific arguments. To meet these goals, I take a scholarly approach to my teaching and also utilize my own […]
Celeste Leander
Teaching Interests My teaching interests include First Year Transition, Collaborative Learning, and Interdisciplinary Learning. Although I am not currently teaching first year courses, I spend the bulk of the year advising, designing, and delivering training for UBC orientation programming (Jump Start and Imagine Day). Doing so provides a great opportunity to work closely with academics from other faculties where I constantly learn new approaches that I bring into my classrooms. I am also embedded in UBC Collegia as a Faculty Fellow where I experience first year students outside of the classroom and outside of Science. Doing so provides rich opportunity to […]
Jaclyn Dee
Lecturer Contact Information: deej@mail.ubc.ca
Caitlin Donnelly
Teaching Interests As a Lecturer who primarily teaches first- and second-year students, one of my main goals is to inspire students to become interested in learning more about biology and its relevance to their lives. By sparking their interest, and introducing them to a scientific way of thinking, I hope that they will start to consider the world around them in a different way, start asking questions, and gain a greater appreciation for the complexity and diversity of life. I aim to equip my students with skills that will be useful to them, whether in their day-to-day lives, or in future […]
Shona Ellis
Courses Taught/Teaching Selected Publications Nachonechny, J and S. M. Ellis 2012 Bryofolios: Individual and Group E-portfolio Learning Spaces for Developing Authentic Science Scholars. In D. Cambridge (Ed.), Hershey PA: Global Diffusion of E-Portfolios: IGI Global Publications Ryall, K., Whitton, J., Schofield,W.B., Ellis, S.M. and A.J. Shaw. 2005 Molecular Phylogenetic Study of Interspecific Variation in the Moss Isothecium (Brachytheciaceae). Systematic Botany 30: 242-247. Ellis, S.M., 2004 Arbor vitae: A personal, teacher’s view of tree-life on the University of British Columbia Campus Davidsonia 15:1 pages 15 – 33. Ellis, S.M., Schofield, W.B., Haddad, N, Stewart, N., and J.K. Webb 2002 Bryophytes of UBC Botanical Garden Davidsonia 13:3 pages 35 – 43. McCutcheon, A. T., Stokes, R. W., Thorson, L. […]
Bridgette Clarkston
Teaching Interests In all of my UBC courses, I teach aspects of biodiversity: the sheer richness and complexity of life in all its forms, how we document and preserve records of diversity in literal “libraries of life” like the Beaty Biodiversity Museum, why we as a species rely on biodiversity for our very survival and well-being. Measuring kelp specimens at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum for an activity about variation within species My joy in teaching comes from seeing my students connect to nature, develop scientific literacy and feel empowered — especially in their first few semesters of university — to develop and […]
Robert J. Bandoni
Professor Emeritus Robert (Bob) Joseph Bandoni passed away peacefully on May 18, 2009 at Mountain View Manor Extended Care Unit in Ladner, B.C. Bob was born November 9, 1926 in Weeks, Nevada to Giuseppe and Albina Bandoni, and graduated from high school in Hawthorne, Nevada. He earned degrees from the University of Nevada at Reno and the University of Iowa before joining the faculty of the Department of Botany at the University of British Columbia in 1958. Following his retirement from the Botany Department in 1989. Bob maintained an active presence both within the Botany Department and in the wider mycological […]
Shannon Berch
Research Interests A large part of the energy that plants allocate to roots actually supports an intricate web of below ground, largely microscopic, life. In the interface between root and soil (the rhizosphere), interactions between roots, fungi, microarthropods and soil can improve or impair plant growth. Traditional commercial use of the forest of British Columbia has focused primarily on trees, especially trees of known economic value. As societal priorities have shifted and broadened to include many other forest uses and values, there has been an awakening to the diversity of life in our forests and to the impact that forest management […]
Colin Bates
Research Interests I am interested in all aspects of marine ecology, but most of my work has focused on seaweeds. In particular, my research involves understanding the consequences of human-induced alterations in intertidal community structure. This work has two components: a) monitoring for changes in algal communities. This work is taking place in Barkley Sound & the Broughton Archipelago (British Columbia). As an continuation of my M.Sc work, I am also collaborating with Dr. Gary Saunders to maintain a long-term monitoring program in the Bay of Fundy (New Brunswick). b) using manipulative experiments to determine the ramifications of change in seaweed communities, with specific […]
Janet Ruth Stein Taylor
ObituaryJanet Ruth Stein Taylor born October 10th 1930 died January 16th 2016 Janet Ruth Stein Taylor was born on October 10th 1930 and raised in Denver CO. She graduated with a BA from University of Colorado (1951), an M.A. from Wellesley College, Wellesley (1953). Her thesis was A Comparative Study of Brachytic and Normal Zea mays. Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Rhoda Garrison. Her PhD research in Botany, from University of California, Berkeley (1957) was under the supervision of George F. Pappenfuss. Her dissertation was A Morphological and Physiological Study of Three Colonial Volvocales. In 1960 she received the “Dorbaker Award” for the best phycological paper published in North […]
Sunita Chowrira
Teaching Interests “Teaching occurs only when learning takes place.” This statement from Bain (2004) is one of the main guiding principles underlying my learner-centered teaching philosophy, and shapes my practice by paying attention to: “The learning path” shown, was developed within the Flexible Learning initiative, BioFlex pilot (2013 – 2016), to provide a deliberate and integrated framework for the blended and active-learning experience. This is now widely used across many Biology courses. Individual and group activities incorporated in the classroom provide many opportunities to practice higher order cognitive skills in a supported environment (Tanner, 2013). Students engaged in a two-stage collaborative exam. http://flexible.learning.ubc.ca/case-studies/the-bioflex-approach/ Courses […]
Craig Berezowsky
Teaching Interests Currently my position at the University of British Columbia is to coordinate and teach Biol 234 (Fundamentals of Genetics), Biology 335 (Molecular Genetics) and Biology 344 (Human Genetics). My graduate research included genetic characterization of E.coli minicells during my M.Sc. My supervisor obtained the first patent on a living organism in Canada and developed a natural live vaccine against neo-natal calf scours. My Ph.D. work was on isogene switching in muscle cells and my supervisor and I were the second to publish using RT-PCR as a technique we developed as an alternative to Northern Blots. During my time at […]
Gary Bradfield
Research Interests My research falls generally in the area of plant community ecology involving the descriptive and correlative analysis of vegetation – environmental relationships. I am also interested in the development of vegetation pattern and organization through time, and in determining the factors that influence community change and the spatial/temporal scales on which they operate. My students and I are currently conducting research in three areas: (1) Coastal marshes and bogs, including plant community structure and restoration of damaged ecosystems. (2) Effects of habitat fragmentation on plant functional groups, including diversity changes in bryophytes, lichens, and vascular plants after logging in […]
Guus Bakkeren
Research Interests Molecular genetic and cell biological understanding of plant-microbial interactions including attributes that make microbes pathogenic such as pathogenicity and virulence factors including fungal mating systems. Plant responses to infection such as recognition and accommodation of biotrophic fungi. Action of effectors that may jam host defence signalling networks, but also effectors that elicit defense and resistance responses (avirulence effectors). My research program at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Summerland Research and Development Center is geared towards the broader goal of contributing to the efforts to combat biotic stresses in cereal crops. We want to understand plant-pathogen interactions in the leaf rust/wheat […]