Our Team

Principal Investigator

  • Dr. Jiaying Zhao

    Dr. Jiaying Zhao she/her, CV

    Dr. Jiaying Zhao (aka JZ) is a Professor in the Department of Psychology and the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She is a leading behavioral scientist tackling critical financial and environmental challenges with behavioral solutions to promote sustainability. JZ directs the Behavioral Sustainability Lab at UBC to design innovative, high-impact behavioral solutions to address pollution, waste, and poverty. She's also a UBC Sauder Distinguished Scholar, faculty affiliate with the Center for Effective Global Action at UC Berkeley, and an invited researcher at J-PAL at MIT. JZ completed her PhD in cognitive psychology at Princeton University, and recently received a King Charles III Coronation Medal, Killam Research Prize, and Canada Research Chair in Behavioral Sustainability. JZ has advised dozens of governments, NGOs, and businesses, including the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, the OECD International Network on Financial Education, the US Social and Behavioral Sciences Team, and the Privy Council Office of Canada.

PhD Students

  • Annie Lalande

    Annie Lalande

    Annie Lalande is a PhD student co-supervised by Drs. Jiaying Zhao and Andrea MacNeill, a surgical oncologist at Vancouver General Hospital leading the UBC Planetary Healthcare Lab. She is interested in understanding how considering food as a therapeutic intervention in healthcare can impact the health of patients, healthcare systems and the planet. Her research involves the development and implementation of a feedback-informed and evidence-based nutritious and low-carbon menu, evaluating its impact on patients’ experience and recovery from illness, and on planetary health. On her down time, she enjoys spending time outdoors, backcountry skiing, climbing and kitesurfing, as well as cooking.

  • Jade Radke

    Jade Radke

    Jade Radke is a PhD student in the Department of Psychology at UBC. Her research focuses on the use of positive reinforcement to promote climate action and improve well-being. Jade holds an MA in Resources, Environment, and Sustainability from UBC, a BA in Honours Psychology, and a certificate in Behavioral Interventions (BICA) from MacEwan University. Jade has been awarded a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship along with UBC’s Four-Year Doctoral and Indigenous Graduate Fellowships. Apart from research, Jade has spent most of her life as a competitive dancer and has been teaching various styles of dance to all ages and levels for over ten years.

Master's Students

  • Simon Sheppard

    Simon Sheppard

    Simon Sheppard is a Master's student in the Cognitive Science department. He received his BA in Honours Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 2024. His current research interests include basic income, poverty and cognition, as well as sustainability. In his spare time he enjoys hiking and spending time outdoors.

  • Hayley Simpson

    Hayley Simpson

    Research Interests: Sustainability, behavior change

  • Humam Aziz

    Humam Aziz

    Humam studied Strategic Management at McGill University and is currently a first year Medical Student at UBC. He has a background in homelessness as a support worker, case manager, and policy consultant. His research interests include poverty reduction, and global health.

Undergraduate Research Assistants

  • Stella Argentopoulos

    Stella Argentopoulos

    Stella is a 4th year BA Psychology student, from Athens Greece. Her research interests focus on applying behavioural science to design interventions that support individual lifestyle changes for more sustainable living and climate change mitigation. More specifically, she has explored the role of probabilistic rewards in encouraging recycling behavior and reducing the use of single-use plastics, as well as the role of Blue Zones, regions known for longevity and well-being, in shaping both happiness and patterns of individual CO₂ emissions. Outside of research, she enjoys staying active through running, swimming, and yoga, and takes every opportunity to get outdoors hiking or snowboarding! She also loves creative projects like jewelry-making and pottery, and is always on the lookout for new coffee shops to explore around Vancouver.

  • June Nguyen

    June Nguyen

    June is a third-year undergraduate student in the BA Cognitive Systems program at UBC. He is interested in studying cognitive processes and how those processes inform behavior. In his free time, June enjoys discovering new albums, binge-watching shows, and going for bubble tea.

  • Iris Lam

    Iris Lam

    Iris is a fifth-year student in the BA Psychology program at UBC. She is particularly interested in the ways people can be nudged toward more environmentally-friendly behaviours. In her free time, Iris enjoys reading, writing fiction, and searching for sea glass.

  • Sam Simpson

    Sam Simpson

    Sam is currently an undergraduate in the Arts faculty at UBC majoring in psychology with a minor in Environment and Society (ENSO). His research interests involve systemic and individual motivation and decision making regarding sustainable behaviors, waste reduction and ecological conservation

  • Ella Heximer

    Ella Heximer

    Ella is a third year Psychology student minoring in Health and Society. She is interested in behavioural interventions and reinforcement, and is excited to learn more about how cognitive biases influence perceptions of climate change. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, playing guitar, and hanging out with her cat.

  • Saba Majd

    Saba Majd

    Saba is a 2nd year Psychology and English Literature double major. In her academic and research career, she hopes to bridge the two fields and explore areas of literary cognition / cognitive poetics as well as memory and gender differences in narrative memory encoding and retrieval.

Join Our Team!

We are always looking for students to join the lab in the following positions: Graduate students, undergraduate research assistants, directed studies, honours students, etc.

If you are interested, please email your CV, transcript, and a cover letter to the PI at jiayingz@psych.ubc.ca

Lab Alumni

  • Dr. Brandon Tomm
  • Dr. Yu Luo, currently Senior Data Scientist at Health Canada
  • Dr. Rumi Naito, currently Impact Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning Specialist at Revalue Nature
  • Lyra Shi, MA graduate
  • James Wu, MA graduate currently a Ph.D. student at University of Toronto
  • Dr. Ryan Dwyer, currently Senior Researcher at Happier Lives Institute
  • Brynley Hanson-Wright, MA graduate currently at Fisheries and Oceans Canada
  • Dr. Ru Qi Yu, currently Assistant Professor of Psychology at East China Normal University
  • Dr. Ivana Zelenika, currently at City of Vancouver
  • Andrea Byfuglien, MA graduate, currently a PhD student at University of Oxford
  • Katherine Cramer, MA graduate
  • Dr. Alejandra Echeverri, currently Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley
  • Anna Xiao Luo, MA graduate, a graduate student at Johns Hopkins University