Career Opportunities

Research Interests: Bioactive Molecules, Biocatalysis, Bioinformatics, Biological and Biochemical Mechanisms, Biomass (Energy), Biomaterials, Bioprocess engineering, Bioremediation, Biotechnology, Drug delivery, Drug discovery & development, Medical biotechnology, Metabolic engineering, Structural Tissue Engineering / Biomaterials, Synthetic biology, Technoeconomics, Tissue engineering, Vaccines

Potential project areas:

My research group utilizes metabolic & enzyme engineering to investigate and customize novel biosynthetic enzymes that can convert biomass-derived feedstocks into value-added chemicals. We have published highly acclaimed papers on model-guided enzyme engineering, process development, enzyme discovery using metagenomics and engineering metabolic control schemes that bridge with bioprocess control and improve productivity. Each of these works represents a critical advance in our ability to employ engineered microorganisms as a manufacturing platform. We also extend the principles of metabolic engineering to the design and development of unique bioremediation strategies to rehabilitate the water quality in and around industrial zones and new mining technologies and we are currently collaborating with Suncor and Jetti Resources, respectively, to deploy novel biotechnologies in the field. In addition to green engineering, my research group also pursues medical biotechnology research, and focuses on three stages in the drug discovery life cycle – (1) bioengineering for assay development, (2) biosynthetic engineering for lead generation, and (3) pharmaceutical product development. Our work on bioengineered assays aims to assemble three-dimensional, structured brain organoids from human pluripotent stem cells for use in pre-clinical screening of hits against Alzheimer’s disease. Through this work, we have established a formal collaboration with STEMCELL Technologies. Our work on pharmaceutical product development is advancing a concept that we dub ‘medicine-by-design’, a fast and low-cost methodology to advance a drug molecule from concept to formulated product based on the synergistic application of bioinformatics and data analysis, metabolic engineering and formulation science. We work closely with an industrial partner, InMed Pharmaceuticals, and have successfully advanced two projects to clinical testing. Our work on development of a ‘smart’ contact lens for treating glaucoma is among the most read scientific articles of 2018. Similarly, our work on the development of a printable bandage for healing damaged skin in patients suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex (EBS) is currently under consideration for publication. Both works are the subjects of patent filings. We have recently initiated a new line of research in the group that fuses biology and materials science to develop better materials and transcend current limitations in manufacturing. The synergistic combination of biological systems with abiotic, functional materials that greatly improves the properties of the original host, and the resulting systems can be applied to a wealth of manufacturing, energy and environmental remediation applications. We laid the intellectual foundations of this paradigm in a forum article in Trends in Biotechnology and subsequently published a proof-of-concept study on a biohybrid photovoltaic cell that is the best in its class and could be used in bioorganic optoelectronics. My research group currently collaborates with 7 companies – STEMCELL Technologies, InMed Pharmaceuticals, Jetti Resources, Metabolik Technologies, Sanofi Pasteur, Reliance Industries Limited and Phytonix Corporation.

Research Interests: Cardiovascular disease, Children, Developmental programming, Diabetes, Obesity

Research Interests: social connection, social support, stress, coping, conflict and negotiation, hormones, neuroendocrinology

Potential project areas:

I am currently recruiting graduate students and postdocs interested in:

• understanding how hormonal changes during puberty affect teenagers’ social and emotional development

• investigating how loneliness and social contact “get under the skin” to affect our physical health

• developing interventions to promote social connection

Research Interests: Community Health / Public Health, Dental Health, Social Determinants of Health, Health Policies, Quality of Life and Aging, Adult Education and Continuing Education, Epidemiology, Access to care, Dental Education, Dental Geriatrics, Dental Public Health, Epidemiological data, Health Policy, Qualitative research

Potential project areas:

Dental Public Health (Underserved-access to care, Marginalization, Community-based participatory research, Stigma and Discrimination); Health Policy; Dental Education (Community Service Learning, Reflective Journaling, Teaching Pedagogies, Social Responsibility); Dental Geriatrics (Undergraduate and Graduate Education, Frailty, Access to care), COVID-19 (vaccine hesitancy).

Research Interests: microsystems and nanotechnology, sensor clusters and networks , Signal processing and control, Ultrasound imaging, Microinstrumentation , Inertial measurement units, wearable systems

Potential project areas:

- Polymer-based transducer arrays for ultrasound imaging - applications in biomedical imaging, or for non-destructive testing of materials and structures

- Advanced microsystems for inertial navigation 

- Sensor microinstrumentation systems

- Signal processing and modern control applied to MEMS transducers

- Wearable body sensor systems

Research Interests: Quantum Phenomena, Magnetism, Materials design and discovery, Quantum materials

Potential project areas:

Materials innovations have sparked most of the major technological advances across the millennia – from the stone, bronze, and iron ages through to the current silicon age. Science now stands on the precipice of a new era: the age of quantum materials – materials with extraordinary electronic and magnetic properties that rely on quantum mechanical effects. In the Hallas group, we use state-of-the-art crystal growth techniques to discover new quantum materials that could unlock these future technologies. 

Crystal growth of new materials

Our group uses a wide range of synthetic methods to grow samples of the materials we study. Conventional solid state methods (shake-and-bake) and flux crystal growth are ideally suited to exploratory synthesis in the pursuit of exciting new materials. The optical floating zone image furnace is a powerful tool that allows us to grow pristine large single crystals. High pressure methods allow us to capture metastable phases that cannot be grown under ambient pressure conditions, an excellent route to finding new structural phases with the potential for exotic new properties. By using this diverse set of synthetic techniques, we are able to explore the periodic table in an unconstrained way, applying the most favourable method for the material we seek to grow.

Structure and the role of disorder

Understanding the crystallography of our new material provides the foundation upon which all other characterizations rest. First and foremost, the crystal symmetry and the connectivity of our lattice informs which theoretical models may be applicable to our material. Furthermore, it is often the materials with the most interesting ground states that exhibit the most profound sensitivity to disorder. Thus, it is crucial to determine what types of disorder are present, and attempt to modify the crystal growth recipe to obtain the highest quality samples. To accomplish these structural characterizations, our starting point is always x-ray diffraction. From there on, we can expand to other tools such as neutron diffraction and electron microscopy.

Magnetic and electronic phenomena

Quantum materials can have remarkable magnetic and electronic states, ranging from superconductors to spin liquids to topological semimetals. These states often emerge under extreme conditions, very low temperatures and high magnetic fields. We have the ability to measure a wide range of physical properties, including magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and electrical resistivity, down to 0.05 K (1/20th of a degree above absolute zero!) and magnetic fields up to 14 T. 

Seeing deeper with neutrons and muons

While we can perform many measurements in our very own lab, some experimental techniques require us to travel to beam lines at large user facilities. We are lucky that Canada's only muon source, TRIUMF, is conveniently located on UBC campus. We can use muon spin relaxation experiments to understand whether our magnetic material is frozen or dynamic or to determine the penetration depth in our superconductor. To access neutron beams we have to travel further; Canada does not currently have a major neutron source. Neutron scattering experiments can tell us the arrangement of magnetic moments in a magnetically ordered material or to map out the the spin excitations. Muon and neutron experiments provide critical insights into the behaviors of quantum materials, that in some cases cannot be accomplished with any other experimental probe. 

Research Interests: Cultural Industries, Formalism, Marxism and Critical Theory, Marxist Feminism, Modernism, Twentieth Century European Art

Research Interests: Evolutionary Genetics, Genomic differentiation, Hybridization, Ornithology, Seasonal migration, Speciation

Potential project areas:

Please see: https://www.zoology.ubc.ca/~irwin/irwinlab/

Research Interests: premature infants, neurodevelopment, stress, pain , measurement, technology transfer, sucrose, rehabilitation, pediatrics

Potential project areas:

neonatology, pediatrics, occupational therapy, measurement, rehabilitation

Research Interests: stroke, clinical trials, cerebral venous thrombosis, outcomes, cognition, machine learning