Faculty of Science

The Faculty of Science houses eight departments investigating the wonders of the natural world, from infinitesimal subatomic particles to the infinite universe – and everything in between.

Academic Units

Visit the Faculty of Applied Sciences Website

Learn more about their programs and how to apply. Contact graduate program assistants for program and application inquiries.

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Featured Graduate Student

  • Chuqiao is an Earth Sciences Doctoral Student in the Faculty of Science researching about the geological history of Vancouver Island to other subduction zones around the world, in order to understand how subduction zones pose unique risks and economic opportunities to the people living near them. (NSERC CGS Doctoral Scholarship )

  • Shabnam is a Applied and Computational Mathematics Master student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: Infectious Disease Modelling, Statistical Modelling, Pandemic Preparedness (CIHR CGS-M)

  • Alexander is a master's student in the Department of Mathematics. His research is focused on graph theory and combinatorics.

  • Haggai is a mathematics doctoral student focusing on enumerative combinatorics and algebraic geometry. (Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship)

  • Quang is a MSc in Statistics student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: Bayesian model averaging, linear mixed-effects models, annealed sequential Monte Carlo (NSERC CGSM)

  • Maggie is a Statistics and Actuarial Science Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science carrying out innovative researches and projects regarding pricing and funding methods for insurance industry. (Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship)

  • Matthew is pursuing a PhD in Statistics and Actuarial Sciences, researching ecological models, disease analytics, computational efficiency, and Functional Data Analysis techniques.

  • Jason is a master's student in the Department of Earth Sciences focusing his research on landslides.

  • Jessi is an Earth Sciences Master's student in the Faculty of Science whose research aim is to try to understand how an alpine area in central Yukon was affected by ice sheets and glaciers over time. (Graduate Fellowship)

  • Maziyar is an Earth Sciences Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research focus is on the 3D reconstruction of Georgia Basin and the potential for Carbon Capture Sequestration in the Lower Mainland, British Columbia. (Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship, Bert Henry Graduate Scholarship, GPS Graduate Fellowship, Petro-Canada Graduate Scholarship)

  • Amy is an Earth Sciences student pursuing her Cotutelle PhD with SFU and National Taiwan University, and also a recipient of the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship. Amy's research focuses on the impact of past climate cycles on tropical cyclone and monsoon activities.

  • Anthony is an Earth Sciences Master's student in the Faculty of Science whose research involves using the geologic record to reconstruct earthquake and tsunami events in the past to help inform British Columbians of the seismic hazards, as well as to improve community preparedness. (NSERC CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Aspen Anderson, an Earth Sciences Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science, studying an important to everyone resource - water. (The Michael Stevenson Graduate Scholarship)

  • Courtney is a Earth Sciences doctoral student. Her research aims to promote, support, and advance geoscience communication in British Columbia. (Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship)

  • Aidan is a Biomedical Physiology & Kinesiology master student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: training load, wearable technology, sport science (NSERC CGSM)

  • Alia is a Biomedical Physiology & Kinesiology doctoral student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: Personalized medicine, inherited arrhythmia, genotype-phenotype correlation

  • Farhaan is a Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Master's student in the Faculty of Science looking at the potential role of fainting in children who experience a sudden cardiac arrest for which there is no explanation. (Graduate Fellowship)

  • Tope is a Biomedical Physiology & Kinesiology master's student in the Faculty of Science working to understand the barriers that prevent children from getting the COVID_19 vaccine in specific groups of people. (Dr. Tom Richardson Memorial Graduate Entrance Award)

  • Sneha is a Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science identifying changes in DNA passed on from one generation to another in families affected with lymphoid cancer. (Graduate Fellowship)

  • Milad is pursuing the study of neuroplasticity and biomechanical engineering.

  • Allison is BPK PhD student investigating how to help women perform sport and exercise through the menstrual cycle. (BC Graduate Scholarship)

  • Rebekah is a Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology Master's student in the Faculty of Science whose research will explore the interactions between breathing patterns and the reflexive tuning of heart rate and blood pressure. (CIHR CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Simona is a Chemistry master student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: Cancer, Nuclear, Interdisciplinary (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme (MSCFP), Canada Graduate Scholarship — Master's program (CGSM))

  • Aivija is a Chemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science working on producing, purifying and binding radioactive antimony to organic molecules for the use of radiotherapy in cancer treatment. (GPS Graduate Fellowship)

  • Himani is a Chemistry Master's student in the Faculty of Sciences developing inhibitors for carbohydrate processing enzymes in our body using synthetic organic chemistry. (GPS Graduate Fellowship)

  • Josiah is a Chemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research is aimed at developing new methods for accessing molecules which have relevance for drug discovery and the development of new imaging agents for PET imaging. (NSERC Postgrad Scholarship - Doctoral)

  • Franklin is a Chemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research is focused on the design or improvement of systems that will help promote the production of hydrogen as a renewable energy source. (Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship)

  • Liana is a chemistry PhD student in the Linington lab at SFU, and a recipient of the CGS Doctoral Scholarship. Liana's current project is on connecting metabolites to their cognate biosynthetic gene clusters using a high-throughput approach.

  • Kalvin is a Chemistry master's student researching on the development of precision/targeted cancer therapy. (BC Graduate Scholarship)

  • Annabelle Kilham is a Chemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research focuses on optimizing nanoparticle catalysts for their use in fuel cell. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship & NSERC CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Emmanuel is a Chemistry PhD student researching on fuel cells and how they can be made cheaper and more efficient with environmentally friendly starting materials. (MITACS Research Training Award, Chemistry Graduate fellowship (3), and NSERC Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship)

  • Parsa is a Chemistry master’s student researching the DNA sequence detection of two different Ginseng species. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Lilianna is a Physics doctoral student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: dark-matter, particle-physics, phenomenology (Bert Henry Memorial Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Sara is a Physics master student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: hermodynamics, Non-equilibrium Statistical Mechanics, Molecular Machines

  • Adrian is a Physics Master's student in the Faculty of Science trying to understand the fundamental properties of nature and is seeking to be able to explain why our world is the way it is. (Special Grad Entrance Scholarship)

  • Zhi is a Physics Master's student in the Faculty of Science figuring out a way to convert the entanglement in 1 million qumodes into 1 million qubits to revolutionize quantum computing. (BC Graduate Scholarship)

  • Matthew is researching atomic nucleus and the forces which both hold it together and allow it to interact with other nuclei. (NSERC Doctoral Awards)

  • Alexander is studying the Large Hadron Collider which produces an incredible amount of data from proton collisions. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Florian is studying the dynamical properties of systems of many interacting quantum particles theoretically. (Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship and Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Obinna is studying magnetism and superconductivity in quantum materials. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Matthew is researching biological molecular machines; both why they’ve evolved the way they have, and how we might go about designing better ones in the future. (NSERC CGS Masters Scholarship and BC Graduate Scholarship)

  • Avinash is a Physics Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science experimenting on colloidal particles. (Billy Jones Grad Award in Physics)

  • Nicholas is a Physics Master's student trying to achieve all-optical control of qubits in Silicon. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Qurat is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Master's student in the Faculty of Science aiming to identify dysregulations in lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, and functionally classify them and their impact to the transcriptome. (Weyerhaeuser MBB Grad Scholarship)

  • Mina is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Master's student in the Faculty of Science interested in the biochemical and structural properties of AID/APOBECs proteins in human and other species as well as involving mechanisms. (Flight 752 Memorial Graduate Scholarship, Graduate Fellowship)

  • Emma is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science trying to identify the cellular pathways that control amyloid body formation in response to stress. (CIHR Doctoral Research Award, Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship)

  • Faezeh is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science studying the effects of changes that occur in our genome by a family known as "AID/APOBECs" on immunotherapy escape in tumor cells. (Weyerhaeuser MBB Grad Scholarship)

  • Alaa is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research aims to exploit single-molecule biophysics techniques to characterize how collagen type IV balances structural stability with responsiveness to physiologically relevant environmental changes. (NSERC Postgrad Scholarship Doctoral & Weyerhaeuser MBB Grad Scholarship)

  • Franklin is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research seeks to study the body mechanisms that control iNOS production and function. (CIHR CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Kevin is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research is based on determining whether the gut microbiota influenced the severity of transplant rejection, and which bacterial species or components were most important. (Weyerhaeuser MBB Grad Scholarship)

  • Casey is an MBB PhD student studying the rate of snow melt due to certain factors such as snow algae blooms and climate change.

  • Priyanka is an MBB master’s student researching the evolution of a family of DNA/RNA mutating enzymes. (Special Graduate Entrance and Graduate Fellowship Award)

  • Samira is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research focuses is on isolating specific cellular components that trigger a pathway that leads to cell division and cancer. (Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship)

  • Katja is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry student in the Faculty of Science studying fruit flies to learn more about how their cells communicate with each other as they grow and become adults in order to have a better understanding of human development and diseases that arise when the cells do not coordinate with each other properly. (CIHR CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Dane is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science researching the regulation mechanism of stress-induced protein aggregation that helps animal cells survive harmful conditions. (Weyerhaeuser MBB Grad Scholarship)

  • Breanna is a Molecular Biology Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research focuses on a dominant snow algal species, Sanguina. (NSERC CGS-M)

  • Jenny is a Molecular Biology and Biochemistry Master's student in the Faculty of Science trying to understand human diseases in both molecular and therapeutic levels through fruit flies. (Weyerhaeuser MBB Grad Scholarship)

  • Mohammad Javad is a Biology doctoral student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: Environmental Toxicology, Aquatic Ecology, Pollution

  • Jess is a Biological Sciences doctoral student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: Placenta, sex, development (NSERC CGSM)

  • Claire is a Biological Science Master's student in the Faculty of Science examining how blood-feeding arthropods perceive their environment through chemical stimuli. (Finlayson Graduate Entrance Scholarship, MPM Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Anita is a Biological Science Master's student in the Faculty of Science interested in the biological control potential of a disease-causing fungus towards soil-dwelling Elaterid beetle larvae for use in agricultural systems. (Graduate Fellowship)

  • Isabella is a Biological Science Master's student in the Faculty of Science studying the effects of petroleum products on Pacific Oysters to aid in oil-spill modelling and impact assessment for fisheries management. (Graduate Fellowship, Abbott/Fretwell Graduate Fellowship)

  • Claire is a Biological Science Master's student in the Faculty of Science exploring how environmental impacts can create patterns of change in underwater communities over space and time. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Manon is a Biological Science Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science trying to figure out why certain species can be found in one place but not in another, even if it is nearby. (Graduate Fellowship, Glen Geen Graduate Scholarship)

  • Nico is a Biological Science Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science studying the novel ecological interactions that have emerged in Patagonia, southern Chile following the recent establishment of non-native Chinook salmon. (Weston Family Scholarship)

  • Iiro is a Biological Science Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science researching how genes may regulate the information of human behaviours and whether one can make more informed predictions of the 'how' and 'why' questions. (Graduate Fellowship)

  • Keenan is a Biological Science Master's student in the Faculty of Science whose research focuses on cellular and metabolic changes that help hinder viral replication. (Graduate Fellowship)

  • Ramis is a Biological Science Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science studying how microbial communities form and how they can be directed and controlled, which can lead to generating value from waste at a scale and at low cost. (Graduate Dean Entrance Scholarship)

  • Heather is a plant pathology-focused doctoral student with an interest in food production and plant biosystems. Heather's current research is aimed towards crop protection and preventative plant disease management.

  • Brett is investigating the concept of 'programmed' mass loss in European starlings.

  • Sanam is a doctoral Sstudent in the department of Biology studying disease transmission in bed bugs.

  • Nasrin is a PhD student researching how to improve the properties of materials to improve the everyday life of people. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Asim is a Biological Sciences PhD student researching the behaviors of ants and how they communicate information to each other, especially during group tasks. (NSERC-CGSD)

  • Matthew is a Biology Master's student in the Faculty of Science researching on how microgravity (space) affects the nervous system at the cellular level. (BC Graduate Scholarship; Dean's Graduate Fellowship; NSERC)

  • Celeste is a Biological Sciences doctoral student in the Faculty of Science examining ecosystem change through historical salmon scale pattterns and isotope analyses of harbour seal and salmon bones. (NSERC CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Amelinda is a Biological Master's student in the Faculty of Science doing her research in neural stem cells.

  • Phillip is a Statistics PhD student researching the information given by data sets and algorithms. (NSERC Doctoral Awards)

  • Robyn is studying Statistics for her Doctorate Degree, focusing her research on the decision-making mind of curlers as they throw their shot in Curling.

  • Normand is a doctoral student in Biomedical Physiology & Kinesiology researching female cardiovascular systems in different types of exercise scenarios. (Vanier CGS, Dean's Graduate Fellowship and BC Graduate Scholarship)

  • Gregory is a Chemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science who's studying how the anticancer drugs behave in relevant biological environments using spectroscopic techniques involving magnets, such as MRI. (NSERC Postgrad Scholarship - Doctoral)

  • Jakub is a master’s student developing instrumentation for detecting illusive particles to expand our insights about the universe. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Joshua is a Physics master’s student researching quantum computers. He is involved with studying quantum spins used as qubits in quantum computers. (BC Graduate Scholarship)

  • Shaianne is a Molecular Biology & Biochemistry master's student in the Faculty of Science studying how a special cell type, Mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) are affected by certain environmental stressors including aging, diet and chronic stress, and how these compromised cells function in disease. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Eric is a Special Arrangements doctoral student in the Faculty of Science. Three research keywords: neuroplasticity, white matter, MRI (NSERC CGSM)

  • Olga is a Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose research proposes a systematic search for phenotypes associated with healthy aging which has the potential to identify biological processes and pathways that are relevant for successful aging. (Graduate Fellowship)

  • Steven is pursuing a doctoral degree in Chemistry studying a family of dye molecules for applications in energy storage.

  • Em is a doctoral student in biology and is focused on the role of marine animal in recycling nutrients. [NSERC CGS-D (2023), NSERC CGS-M (2020), and BC Graduate Scholarship (2020)]

  • Bonnie is a doctoral student and a recipient of the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship-CGS D. Bonnie is researching how pollution in the lower Fraser River is affecting the health of juvenile Chinook salmon.

  • Kailyn is researching the trigonometric work of Georg Rheticus (1514-1574), and seeks to explain the peculiar flaws his tables contain. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Hannah is researching numerical methods for partial differential equations on surfaces. (Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Erin is a master's student who is researching fainting. (CIHR CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Hamza's work is related to experimental high energy physics. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Brooke is a PhD student researching how to target cancerous cells in an extremely targeted manner. (Graduate Entrance Scholarship and NSERC CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Koushik is exploring the physical properties of the collagen protein in the human body. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Javier is working on improving the efficiency and accuracy of computational simulations of skeletal muscle mechanics. (Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Matt's research is furthering our understanding of the Boltzmann equation from an analytic perspective. (Special Graduate Entrance Scholarship)

  • Catherine is a BPK Aerospace Physiology Laboratory Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science whose ultimate goal is to assist astronaut crews to withstand the physiological effects of space as they explore deeper into (and beyond) the solar system.

  • Raffaele is a Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science examining how the heart changes based on short and long term physical activity in populations that are healthy and those who are impacted with various chronic diseases. (BC Graduate Scholarship)

  • Parmissa is a Nuclear Medicinal Inorganic Chemistry Doctoral student in the Faculty of Science researching on the development of new pharmaceuticals (radiopharmaceuticals) for cancer that incorporates a radioactive metal atom. (BC Graduate Scholarship)

  • Jaime is a Pest Management Master's student in the Faculty of Science whose research focuses on exploring the foraging preferences and chemical communication methods of ants. (Thelma Finlayson Graduate Fell)

  • Maksym is an Applied and Computational Mathematics Master's student in the Faculty of Science whose research is in studying and developing accurate, robust and efficient artificial intelligence, specifically deep neural networks, for image reconstruction. (BC Graduate Scholarship & NSERC CGS Masters Scholarship)

  • Niloufar involves mathematics, computer science, and biology in her interdisciplinary studies as a PhD student.

  • Sean studies engineering science while competing on SFU's track and field team. He is a recipient of the CGS Master's scholarship. Currently, Sean is developing a wearable circuit that can create powerful pulses of light for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes.

Internal + Donor Funded Awards

Learn about Internal + Donor Funded awards at SFU.

View Awards

Department of Biological Sciences

Program Credential Tuition Completion Pathway
Biological Sciences MSc
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis
Biological Sciences PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis
Environmental Toxicology MET Regular Project
Pest Management MPM Regular Thesis
Visit the Department of Biological Sciences to learn more about programs, how to apply, and for contact information.

Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology

Program Credential Tuition Completion Pathway
Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology MSc Regular Thesis
Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis
Visit the Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology to learn more about programs, how to apply, and for contact information.

Department of Chemistry

Program Credential Tuition Completion Pathway
Chemistry MSc Regular Thesis
Chemistry PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis
Visit the Department of Chemistry to learn more about programs, how to apply, and for contact information.

Department of Earth Sciences

Program Credential Tuition Completion Pathway
Earth Sciences MSc
(Minimum funding available)
Regular
Thesis
Earth Sciences PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular
Thesis
Visit the Department of Earth Sciences to learn more about programs, how to apply, and for contact information.

Department of Mathematics

Program Credential Tuition Completion Pathway
Applied and Computational Mathematics MSc
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Project; Thesis
Applied and Computational Mathematics PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis
Mathematics MSc
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis; Project
Mathematics PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis
Visit the Department of Mathematics to learn more about programs, how to apply, and for contact information.

Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry

Program Credential Tuition Completion Pathway
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry MSc Regular Thesis
Molecular Biology and Biochemistry PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis
Visit the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry to learn more about programs, how to apply, and for contact information.

Department of Physics

Program Credential Tuition Completion Pathway
Physics MSc
(Minimum funding available)
Regular
Thesis
Physics PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular
Thesis
Visit the Department of Physics to learn more about programs, how to apply, and for contact information.

Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science

Program Credential Tuition Completion Pathway
Actuarial Science MSc Regular Project
Statistics MSc Regular Project
Statistics PhD
(Minimum funding available)
Regular Thesis
Visit the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science to learn more about programs, how to apply, and for contact information.