Program Overview

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Overview

The Doctor of Philosophy in Atmospheric Science (PhD) program at the University of British Columbia (UBC) is an interdisciplinary program that focuses on the study of atmospheric behavior on various scales, from turbulent eddies to global circulation. The program is motivated by weather-related societal issues, including climate change, air quality, and renewable energy. Important tools used in the program include big data, geographic information systems, and remote sensing. The methods employed in the program include lab experiments, field experiments, numerical weather prediction, and climate simulation.

Program Details

• Faculty: Faculty of Science
• Academic Unit: Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences
• Specialization: Atmospheric Science
• Mode of Delivery: In person at UBC Vancouver
• Program Components: Dissertation
• Tuition (First Year):
  • Domestic: $5,626.02
  • International: $9,883.98
• Median Funding: 50% of students receive $42,387 or more funding per year in the first 4 years, before tuition and fees

Admission Information & Requirements

Check Eligibility

• Minimum Academic Requirements: The Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies establishes the minimum admission requirements common to all applicants, usually a minimum overall average in the B+ range (76% at UBC).
• English Language Test: Applicants from a university outside Canada in which English is not the primary language of instruction must provide results of an English language proficiency examination as part of their application.
  • TOEFL: Overall score requirement: 100, Reading: 22, Writing: 22, Speaking: 23, Listening: 22
  • IELTS: Overall score requirement: 7.0, Reading: 6.5, Writing: 6.5, Speaking: 7.0, Listening: 6.5
• Prior Degree Requirements: Qualified students with Masters degrees in any STEM field are encouraged to apply for the ATSC PhD program.
• Course Requirements: Strong physics, math, and computational background is desired.

Research Information

Research Focus

Research areas include weather-related natural disasters, air pollution and atmospheric chemistry, micrometeorology, cloud and aerosol physics, atmospheric radiation and remote sensing, fluid dynamics, climate dynamics and climate change, glaciology, atmosphere-ocean interactions, urban meteorology, transportation meteorology, numerical weather prediction, artificial neural networks, big data, and much more.

Facilities

The program has access to extensive lab facilities, wind tunnels, cluster-computing facilities, and high-performance computing facilities.

Tuition & Financial Support

Tuition

• Fees:
  • Application Fee: $118.50 (Canadian Citizen / Permanent Resident / Refugee / Diplomat), $168.25 (International)
  • Tuition per year: $5,626.02 (Domestic), $9,883.98 (International)
• Other Fees and Costs:
  • Student Fees (yearly): $1,144.10 (approx.)
  • Costs of living: Estimate your costs of living with our interactive tool

Financial Support

• Program Funding Packages: PhD students are guaranteed a minimum of salary of CAN$ 25,500.00 (plus tuition) per year for the first four years.
• Funding Statistics: Based on the criteria outlined below, 10 students within this program were included in this study because they received funding through UBC in the form of teaching, research, academic assistantships or internal or external awards with a mean of $40,824 and a median of $42,387.

Career Outcomes

Sample Employers

• University of British Columbia
• University of Calgary
• King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
• Norwegian Meteorological Institute
• BC Hydro
• National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)
• RWDI AIR Inc.
• Environment and Climate Change Canada

Sample Job Titles

• Researcher
• Manager
• Science Deputy Director
• Technical Director
• Research Scientist

Enrolment, Duration & Other Stats

Enrolment Data

• Applications: 13 (2023), 7 (2022), 19 (2021), 5 (2020), 8 (2019)
• Offers: 2 (2023), 0 (2022), 5 (2021), 2 (2020), 1 (2019)
• New Enrolment: 1 (2023), 0 (2022), 3 (2021), 2 (2020), 1 (2019)
• Total Enrolment: 14 (2023), 15 (2022), 14 (2021), 8 (2020), 8 (2019)

Research Supervisors

Instructions regarding thesis supervisor contact for this program

Applicants should browse faculty profiles and indicate in their application who they are interested in working with. No commitment from a supervisor prior to applying is necessary, but contacting faculty members is encouraged.

List of Faculty Members with Full Supervisory Privileges

• Allen, Susan
• Austin, Philip
• Balmforth, Neil
• Bertram, Allan
• Black, Thomas Andrew
• Borduas-Dedekind, Nadine
• Donner, Simon
• Giang, Amanda
• Orsi, Anais
• Pawlowicz, Richard
• Radic, Valentina
• Stull, Roland
• Waterman, Stephanie
• White, Rachel
• Zimmerman, Naomi

Sample Thesis Submissions

• Cannabis cultivation and processing facilities: linking emissions and air quality to inform regulation
• High-resolution dynamical downscaling to explore climate- and terrain-influenced changes to the weather of British Columbia
• Improving fire danger forecasting with numerical weather prediction and machine learning
• Modelling cloud-environment interactions during moist convection: a numerical study of boundary-layer cloud dynamics

Related Programs

Same Specialization

• Master of Science in Atmospheric Science (MSc)

Same Academic Unit

• Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Engineering (PhD)
• Doctor of Philosophy in Geological Sciences (PhD)
• Doctor of Philosophy in Geophysics (PhD)
• Doctor of Philosophy in Oceanography (PhD)
• Graduate Certificate in Applied Geological Engineering (GCAGE)
• Master of Applied Science in Geological Engineering (MASc)
• Master of Applied Science in Geophysics (MASc)
• Master of Engineering in Geological Engineering (MEng)
• Master of Science in Atmospheric Science (MSc)
• Master of Science in Geological Sciences (MSc)
• Master of Science in Geophysics (MSc)
• Master of Science in Oceanography (MSc)