Marine virologist, astrophysicist earn UBC’s top research prizes
March 10, 2026
Two of the university’s premier research prizes were awarded to UBC Science faculty members today, with Dr. Curtis Suttle receiving the Jacob Biely award, and Dr. Jess McIver earning UBC’s Charles A. McDowell award.
Six other UBC Science researchers were awarded Killam Accelerator Research Fellowships, Killam Research Fellowships, and Killam Research Prizes. In total, the university honoured 29 awardees this year.
“It’s fitting that researchers investigating small but remarkable marine organisms and some of the cosmos’ greatest mysteries have earned these awards,” said Dr. Mark MacLachlan, Dean of the Faculty of Science. “It highlights the breadth and quality of research happening across the faculty.”
“The entire UBC Science community should be proud of this recognition of our work in the computational sciences, life sciences, astrophysics, material sciences, and sustainability.”
Dr. Suttle, appointed in four units (Microbiology and Immunology, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Botany and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries), was the first researcher to recognize the abundance of viruses in seawater. He also elucidated their role as major agents of mortality and drivers of global biogeochemical cycles. The Jacob Biely Faculty Research Prize was established in 1969 and is regarded as UBC’s premier award for research across all disciplines.
An expert in gravitational wave astrophysics, Dr. McIver’s team searches for gravitational wave signals from spinning neutron stars and work to improve and calibrate some of the world’s most advanced detectors. The Charles A. McDowell Award for Excellence in Research is made to an outstanding early career researcher at UBC who has demonstrated excellence in pure or applied scientific research.
UBC Killam Accelerator Research Fellowships went to Dr. Marie Auger-Méthé (Statistics and the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries) and to Dr. Jolene Reid (Chemistry). The awards support early-career researchers ready to accelerate their research programs through supplementary research funding and teaching release.
Killam Research Prizes, which recognize outstanding research and scholarly contributions, went to Dr. Sean Crowe, (Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and Microbiology and Immunology) and Dr. Laurel Schafer (Chemistry).
Drs. Elina Robeva and Geoffrey Schiebinger, both with Mathematics, were awarded Killam Research Fellowships, designed to help outstanding faculty pursue full-time research during a study leave.
