Research Profiles

Dr. Robert McMahon (Psychology) is the BC Leadership Chair in Proactive Approaches to Reducing Risk for Violence Among Children and Youth. An internationally renowned clinical child psychologist, McMahon’s research focuses on developing effective intervention strategies to prevent and reduce violent and aggressive behaviour in children and youth. His Institute for the Reduction of Youth Violence – based at SFU and at the Child & Family Research Institute at BC Children’s Hospital – will be a critical resource for understanding the development of youth violence and other serious conduct problems, and for developing, implementing, and evaluating an array of evidence-based preventive and treatment interventions for these children and youth.

Visit Dr. McMahon’s website to learn more.

Dr. Urs Ribary (Psychology) is the BC Leadership Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience in Early Childhood Health and Development.

A leading researcher in magnetoencephalography (MEG) brain imaging, Ribary directs SFU’s Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience Institute, an international network of researchers who provide multidisciplinary expertise on brain imaging and gather data that will improve our understanding of the normal and altered human brain. His research goals relate to the analysis of signals between brain areas across frequency and time in order to develop diagnostic procedures for cognitive abnormalities, and neurological and psychiatric pathologies, and to translate these procedures into better pedagogical applications and cognitive, pharmacological, and surgical interventional therapies.

Visit Dr. Ribary’s website to learn more.

Marlene Moretti (Psychology) is a Senior Research Chair, Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Institute of Gender and Health

Over the course of her career, Dr. Marlene Moretti has focused on developmental factors related to psychological health and well being, particularly as they relate to the transition through adolescence and into young adulthood. Her current research focuses on pre-teen and teen mental health and behavioural problems, the importance of attachment relationships in buffering youth from adversity, and the development, dissemination and evaluation of interventions to promote health and reduce risk among youth. Marlene is an accomplished author, having written or contributed to numerous articles and books on psychology.

Visit Dr. Moretti's website to learn more.

Dr. Mary-Ellen Kelm (History) is the Canada Research Chair in History, Medicine and Society

Working in collaboration with First Nations and health researchers, Dr. Kelm studies the contributions made by Aboriginal people, as well as by anthropologists, health-care providers, and government, in defining Aboriginal health issues. She works with her students in the Qualitative History Research Laboratory to examine the history of Aboriginal-settler interaction – she recently completed a book on rodeo as a medium for cultural articulation both for Aboriginal and non-Native people – and she examines the impacts of colonization on Aboriginal health and healing.

Visit Dr. Kelm’s website to learn more.

Dr. Jonathan R. Kesselman (Public Policy Program) is the Canada Research Chair in Public Finance

Combining applied economic theory with institutional policy analysis, he works on the practical design of taxation and income security policies. One of Dr. Kesselman’s innovations is the Tax Free Savings Account, widely cited in policy/financial circles as the most significant advance in Canada’s tax treatment of savings since RRSPs were introduced in the 1950s. A frequent commentator on issues of public finance, taxation, and economic policy, Dr. Kesselman works on topics in taxation, income security, employment policy, and social insurance finance.

Visit Dr. Kesselman’s website to learn more.

Dr. John J. McDonald (Psychology) is the Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience

His research investigates how paying attention improves perception of objects in different sensory modalities and helps to transfer information across sensory modalities to facilitate perception in the real world. Working with students in the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Dr. McDonald has developed sophisticated new EEG methods to track the control and deployment of attention to different locations of the visual scene. He has isolated patterns of electrical brain activity associated with the processing of attended visual objects and the suppression of irrelevant – but potentially distracting – visual stimuli. This work will help improve understanding of attentional distraction related to impulsivity, attention-deficit disorder, and other neurological disorders.

Visit Dr. McDonald’s website to learn more.

Dr. Cynthia K. Patton (Sociology/Anthropology) is the Canada Research Chair in Community, Culture and Health

Her multidisciplinary research takes a broad approach to health care, and includes media analysis and fieldwork with communities that are directly affected by health issues. Based in the Health Research Methods and Training Facility, Dr. Patton works with researchers, policy makers, educators, health care providers, community groups and others to collaborate on specific health issues including the social aspects of HIV/AIDS, health and homelessness, complex patients, and health disparities embedded in social and behavioural practices.

Visit Dr. Patton’s website to learn more.

Dr. Arthur J. Robson (Economics) is the Canada Research Chair in Economic Theory and Evolution

His multidisciplinary research examines the relationship between evolutionary biology and human economic choice, attitudes toward risk, time preference, and strategic interactions. In seeking to determine how evolution influences the strategies that humans employ over time, under uncertainty, and in interactions with each other, Dr. Robson observes present-day hunter‑gatherer economies to make inferences about our evolutionary history; he develops theoretical models of the evolution of economic behaviour in general, and of preferences in particular; and he considers the biological basis of strategic behaviour.

Visit Dr. Robson’s website to learn more.

Dr. Stephen Wright (Psychology) is the Canada Research Chair in Social Psychology

He investigates psychological mechanisms that underpin prejudice and intergroup discrimination and that guide the responses of people in societally disadvantaged groups. The starting point of Dr. Wright’s research is the concept of collective identity – that the groups we belong to form an essential part of our understanding of who we are – and from that basis he examines prejudicial attitudes in cross-group interactions, discrimination against socially disadvantaged groups, and how psychological processes and educational practices come together to affect the lives of "minority-language" children.

Visit Dr. Wright’s website to learn more.

The Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair was established in 1984 with a grant from the federal government and matching funds from private donations. This endowed chair in Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies was established and named for Ruth Wynn Woodward, one of British Columbia's outstanding pioneer women.

The current Ruth Wynn Woodward Chair is Tiffany Muller Myrdahl, whose research links urban, social, and feminist geography with community-engaged qualitative research. Her current research combines critical analyses of urban policy with the development of a queer oral history archive and an examination of the socio-spatial formations of LGBTQ identities.

See the Department website for previous Ruth Wynn Woodward Chairs