Kerry Jang

Dr. Kerry Jang received his PhD from the University of Western Ontario. He joined the department as faculty in 1995. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Personality Disorders and Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, and Treatment and is an Associate Editor of Personality and Individual Differences. He has authored/coauthored over 130 peer review papers, book chapters, and a book on behavioral genetics that has also been translated into Japanese. He sought public office to Vancouver City Council in 2008 and will have served for three consecutive terms (2008 – 2018). In office, he has taken the lead on tackling the city’s health and social development problems such as homelessness, cannabis regulation, and the opioid crisis.

His primary research focuses on a) personality, b) personality disorder, and c) mental illness using behavioral genetic methods to investigate how genetic and environmental factors underlie and influence to observed behavior and presentation. Recent work has been focused on addiction and substance use, and public health research on vulnerable urban populations, specifically the causes of homeless and the health status of individuals suffering from concurrently occurring psychiatric disorder and polysubstance abuse and addiction.

Peer-reviewed publications

In 2006, he was named academic of the year by Canadian University Faculty Associations of British Columbia. He was also recognized in 2007 with the Province of British Columbia Community Achievement Award for his involvement in community service projects on assisting vulnerable population, and was named a distinguished academic in 2008 by the Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia.