Our Team

Principal Investigator

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  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

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  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.

  
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  Yimeng Han

  Yimeng Han is a PhD student in the Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Lingnan University in Hong Kong and completed her MA in Psychology at the University of Manitoba. Her current research interests include understanding the drivers and barriers to electric vehicle adoption, the behavioural science of climate action, and the impacts of climate change on people’s lives and well-being.

Master's Students

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  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.

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  Hayley Simpson

  Research Interests: Sustainability, behavior change

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  Humam Aziz

  Humam studied Strategic Management at McGill University and is currently 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

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  Mélodie Zabbal

  Mélodie Zabbal is a psychology student at the University of British Columbia whose academic interests lie at the intersection of human behaviour, climate action, and the classical civilizations. After studying classics at Neuchatel College, Mélodie became interested in the parallels between how ancient and modern societies confront uncertainty across existential threats such as climate change. Her studies in psychology focus on how people of different eras respond to fear and seemingly overwhelming challenges. Mélodie currently works as a research assistant at Dr. Jiaying Zhao’s Behavioural Sustainability Lab, and is interested in continuing to research climate change and the growing sense of apathy surrounding it in society today.

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  June Nguyen

  June is a 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.

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  Iris Lam

  Iris is a 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.

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  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

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  Ella Heximer

  Ella is a 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.

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  Saba Majd

  Saba is a Psychology student. 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.

Lab Alumni

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