News & events

BMED lab members will be presenting two posters at the 18th International Congress of Behavioural Medicine in Vienna, Austria this August. The accepted abstracts explore emotion regulation interventions for physical activity and changes in identity and habit formation among active parents.

A paper co-authored by Dr. Ryan Rhodes, Heather Hollman, and Yoah Sui has been named one of the top 10 most-cited articles in Family Process for 2023. This recognition highlights the impact of BMED Lab’s research on family physical activity and health behaviours. Congratulations to the authors!

The Behavioural Medicine Lab is pleased to welcome Rachel Mallinson as our new Research Coordinator. Rachel will be coordinating the We Are an Active Family study and the Active Together study. We look forward to seeing her contributions to these important projects!

Our post-doctoral researcher, Carol Brennan, is a recipient of the Theory and Techniques of Behaviour Change Intervention (TTBCI) Travel Award towards her travel expenses for the Society of Behavioral Medicine's annual conference in San Francisco!

Congratulations to Post Doctoral Fellow Carol Brennan and her Abstract Award at the The Society of Behavioural Medicine's 46th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions,. This conference is happening in San Francisco, CA, March 26 - 29, 2025.

Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Rhodes and team for being awarded CIHR Funding for the next 5 years for their project titled: "Reframing Retirement: An Examination of Identity Change and Self­Regulation Approaches to Promote Physical Activity."

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Ryan Rhodes who was awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal. This award is given to individuals who have made a significant contribution to Canada or to a particular province, territory, region or community of Canada. An incredible honour to receive and well deserved!

Congratulations to all of the BMed Lab members who have had abstract presentations accepted for the Society of Behavioural Medicine Conference in San Francisco 2025!

Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Rhodes for being named a Highly Cited Researcher 2024 by Clarivate! This prestigious recognition highlights Dr. Rhodes’ significant contributions to research, placing him among the world’s most influential scientists whose work has been frequently cited by peers.

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Ryan Rhodes as he was selected as a Fellow for the Royal Society of Canada.

The Behavioural Medicine Lab would like to welcome our newest Post-Doc Alfred Lee. W are looking forward to having you as part of the team this coming year!

Welcome to our new doctoral exchange student Cecilia Cheng. Cecilia has joined our lab for the next 3 months from Hong Kong Baptist University.

The BMed Lab wants to give a nice warm welcome to Carol Brennan our new Post Doctoral Fellow! She has come to Victoria from the University College Dublin and we are very excited to have her presence in the Lab!

The BMed Lab is wanting to say a bittersweet farewell to our Post Doc Colin Wierts as he embarks on his next academic journey! He will be taking an appointment at LSU - Go Tigers! Colin you will be missed and we look forward to seeing what this next chapter brings!

Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Rhodes for reaching a H-Index of 100 earlier this month! This means 100 publications cited at least 100 times! What an amazing accomplishment! You can look at Dr. Ryan Rhodes' publications through the following Google Scholar link: https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=-76ZlG8AAAAJ&hl=en

Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Rhodes who will be traveling to Cascais, Portugal this fall to present at the European Health Psychology Society Annual Meeting.

Dr. Ryan Rhodes has been invited to presented the Asia-Pacific Society for Physical Activity, Early Careers’ Research on Showcase on June 10th, 2024.

Congratulations to Craig, T.V., Rhodes, R.E., and Scientific Abstract titled “Energy Expenditure And Mood States During Two Modes Of A Virtual Reality Fitness Game” has been accepted for in-person presentation in a Free Communication/Poster session at the 2024 ACSM Annual Meeting being held at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA from May 28 to 31, 2024.

The BMED team would like to wish you all a very happy and safe holidays, as well as a Happy New Year! We hope all of our students and colleagues had a productive and successful finish to their term, and we look forward to what 2024 has to bring!

Congratulations to our Masters Student Chris Graham on his First Open Heart Society of B.C. Scholarship! This $8,000 scholarship has been created to financially assist a member of the next generation of health professionals who will working to improve the lives of cardiovascular patients of the Vancouver Island community. Well deserved Chris!

Congratulations are in order for Dr. Ryan Rhodes as he received a $15,000 Research Fellowship in the Department of Early Childhood Education at the Education University of Hong Kong in 2024!

Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Rhodes for being awarded Highly Cited Researcher by Clarivate for 2023

We are excited to announce that we have new studies in the works, and a couple up and running! Most recently our "We Are an Active Family" Study funded by Diabetes Canada began recruitment this past summer! Check out our Research Studies page for more information, or email us at bml@uvic.ca to learn more! Parents and children who get involved in our studies before 2024 will enter themselves into a draw for the opportunity to win a week of FREE Sports Camp at UVic, along with some other great prizes from local Yoga studios, Flying Squirrel, and Lululemon!

Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Rhodes who has been awarded the opportunity of a Short-Term Visiting Research International Fellowship at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia this December!

Special shout out to Dr. Ryan Rhodes who is leading an expert workshop in Bremen, Germany (September 3-4) with Dr. Aleks Luszczynska (SWPS University, Wroclaw, Poland) called “All we know about physical activity and the social environment: A system mapping approach”. The workshop will kick off the EHPS Annual Meeting.

We want to give a nice warm welcome to Yasmine Forghanisoong who will be beginning her undergraduate honours degree under the supervision of Dr. Ryan Rhodes starting this fall!

Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Rhodes for being awarded the Faculty of Education Established Scholar Award for Excellence in Research. The Established Scholar award recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates excellence in multiple categories, including research awards and external funding, publications and presentations, and research-inspired teaching.

We want to extend a big warm welcome to our three incoming Masters students Chris Graham, Harvey Zhang, and Joe Barton. All three individuals have already been making a significant impact within various roles in the Behavioural Medicine Lab, and we are excited to have them back as Masters students!

We are excited to hear that Dr. Ryan Rhodes and his current research is featured in an exhibition at Banting House National Historic Site of Canada. This exhibit panel showcases Diabetes Canada’s 2022 funded researchers and their projects, tying back to Diabetes Canada’s history of supporting the research community and the history of Banting House.

Doctoral Student Heather Hollman has been awarded a $20,000 SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship Award! Congratulations!

Congratulations to our team who are presenting at the upcoming 17th International Congress of Behavioral Medicine! The meeting will be taking place on August 23-26, 2023 in Vancouver, BC.

Congratulations to Dr. Rhodes and team for their new textbook publication.

Congratulations to our director, Dr. Ryan Rhodes, and his team, who were recognized for their work published in The British Journal of Health Psychology. They were awarded achievement for being among one of the top cited articles.

Congratulations to Aleah on her successful Master's thesis defence. Her thesis is titled "A Feasibility Study Evaluating an Online Physical Activity Intervention for Young Adults with Low Mood and/or Depression Engaged in Community Primary Clinical Care". Aleah was also recently enrolled in the highly competitive UVic Clinical Psychology graduate program. We wish you the best, Aleah!

We would like to congratulate Stina on successfully defending her Master's thesis!

We're excited to announce that Dr. Rhodes is a recipient of a Diabetes Canada research funding award! Dr. Rhodes and team will be testing an innovative family-based physical activity intervention that focuses on identity formation and behavioural change.

As things start to wind down for the end of the term we would like to wish everyone happy holidays and a happy, healthy and productive new year!

Congratulations to our director, Dr. Ryan Rhodes, who was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher 2022 from Clarivate for ranking in the top 1% by citations in the Cross-Field category in the Web of Science!

We are excited to welcome our new master's student, Sarah Hough, who will be joining the BMed lab in January, 2023!

Congratulations to one of our postdoctoral fellows, Dr. Yoah Sui, as well as our Lab Director, Dr. Rhodes, who recently received notice of accepted presentations for the upcoming 44th Annual Meeting & Scientific Sessions of the Society of Behavioral Medicine! The meeting will be taking place on April 26-29, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona.

We are excited to welcome Colin Wierts as a new Postdoctoral Fellow in the BMed lab! Colin's current research interests include the processes by which individuals develop physical activity-related identities (e.g., "I am an exerciser", "I am a runner") and how life transitions (post-secondary education, parenthood, employment, retirement) may affect these identities, but also how they can be leveraged to develop new physical activity-related identities. Colin is also interested in how parents develop individual and collective social identities surrounding family-based physical activity participation.

Make sure to save the date for the upcoming 17 International Congress of Behavioral Medicine! It is taking place on August 23-26, 2023 in beautiful Vancouver, BC, at the Sheraton Wall Centre Hotel. Call for Abstracts opens September 15, 2022 and Abstract Submission closes November 23, 2022.

Congratulations to Heather for her recent Gold Poster Award in the National Poster Presentation at the 2022 Canadian Student Health Research Forum.

We would like to welcome Katharina Feil, who is a PhD student visiting from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany. Katharina's PhD research examines the anticipated emotions in physical activity behaviour and she will be working with the BMed lab during the 2022 summer semester. We would also like to welcome Avi Ghorbani who is our incoming Masters student.

Congratulations to Heather Hollman who just passed her candidacy exams and is now a PhD candidate!

Congratulations to Emily Magel on being awarded the CIHR Canada Graduate Scholarship - Master's!

Two of our BMed members, our doctoral student Heather Hollman and our director Dr. Ryan Rhodes, will be presenting findings from the lab at conferences in June.

Our lab recently published two articles in The Conversation, one by our postdoc, Dr. Yoah Sui, on 5 tips for choosing a YouTube fitness channel to change your exercise behaviour and the other by our director, Dr. Ryan Rhodes, on research-based tips for adopting and sticking to new healthy lifestyle behaviours. Make sure to check them out!

The BMed and DH Labs celebrated the end of term with an island-themed scavenger hunt. Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday!

Congratulations to our BMed grad students, Aleah Ross and Heather Hollman, on their recent scholarships in digital health!

We are thrilled to announce that our director, Dr. Ryan Rhodes has been recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher - 2021 from Clarivate.

Our postdoctoral fellow, Yoah, will be presenting at the 35th Annual Conference of the European Health Psychology Society later in August, and together with two graduate students, Aleah and Heather, each will be presenting at the 8th International Society for Physical Activity and Health in October.

Dr. Ryan Rhodes and the Multi-Process Action Control (M-PAC) framework were recently featured on the @SBMTheory Twitter as a #TTBCISpotlight.

The BMED lab would like to welcome incoming Master's students, Alyssa Manankil-Lakusta and Emily Magel, who will be working under the supervision of Dr. Rhodes.

We would like to thank Alison for all of her hard work and contributions to the BMED lab.

The BMED lab is excited to announce our new Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Yoah Sui. Yoah recently completed his PhD at Western University where his research focused on sedentary behaviour and its relation to health and well-being among university students. We have already been impressed by his astute, innovative, and thought-provoking contributions to several ongoing projects in the BMED lab. Welcome to the team, Yoah!

Our doctoral student, Heather Hollman, was just awarded an Early Career Researchers Grant from the Canadian Chiropractic Research Foundation. This grant will help fund her research on the promotion of physical activity by postpartum women with lumbopelvic pain. Congratulations Heather!

We are excited to announce that our director, Dr. Ryan Rhodes, is the recipient of the Researcher of the Year Award from the Canadian Kinesiology Alliance.

We are excited to welcome Bianca DeSilva to the BMED lab as the new Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) Trial Coordinator.

We are excited to announce that Stina has accepted a new position with the BC Ministry of Health.

Behavioural Medicine Lab Director, Dr. Ryan Rhodes, was interviewed on his research examining how COVID-19 has affected physical activity behaviour. Be sure to check out this Q&A to see a summary of the main findings.

An incredible crew of researchers teamed up to investigate the relationship between personality and stress during the pandemic.

A new, hot of the press study commissioned by ParticipACTION explores the impact of the initial COVID-19 crisis on the movement behaviours of Canadian children and youth. This national survey linked COVID-19 restrictions with adverse behaviours such as lower PA, less outside time, and higher SB. Unsurprisingly, the stay at home instructions made it more challenging than ever for kids to maintain healthy movement behaviours. Indeed, during the lockdown, the grade for 24-hour movement behaviours would be an “F”.

On June 17, ParticipACTION released the latest Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth. A grade of D+ was assigned to kids on their overall physical activity. Be sure to check out the full report card to learn more.

The BMED lab has been hard at work to start up multiple studies related to COVID-19.

We would like to congratulate Heather Hollman on her recent EPHE Graduate Student Entry Award!

In March Dr. Rhodes spoke at a webinar presented by ISBNPA SIG Motivation and Behavior Change. Check out the webinar in which he discusses moving from adoption to sustainable physical activity patterns!

The BMed lab is thrilled to welcome Heather Hollman to the team! We look forward to having you on board.

This month on the blog we continue to discuss doing the work as you endeavour to incorporate physical activity into your life. One way to do so is by planning! Be sure to check out how to become a master planner and stay tuned for subsequent posts devoted to building your behaviour change toolbox!

This September, the Behavioural Medicine Lab is welcoming several new research assistants, students, and visitors! We are excited for to have the following on board:

At the recent European Health Psychology Conference in Dubrovnik Croatia, the new journal editorial team was announced. We were thrilled to learn that Dr. Rhodes will be co-editor-in-chief alongside Dr. Kyra Hamilton. Join us in congratulating Ryan as he begins his tenure in this exciting new position!

Dr. Rhodes was recently invited to meetings in Geneva hosted by the World Health Organization. The workshop was entitled "Technical Consultation on the Development of a Global Mobile Health Programme for Physical Activity (mActive)".

For our latest blog post we speak to how social support can influence our health behaviours. We highlight how two types of social support can positively impact our motivation for physical activity according to M-PAC. We also discuss some ways to actively build a support network!

The BMED Lab is looking forward to attending the EHPS 2019 Annual Conference this September in Dubrovnik, Croatia!

The BMED lab is pleased to announce that Cassandra Husband has been awarded the Graduate Student Research Award (Masters student) for the Faculty of Education for 2018. Her work involved considerably advanced methodological design and her findings offered important new insights into the field. Please join us in recognizing and celebrating Cassandra's exciting accomplishment!

Dr. Rhodes is currently accepting doctoral students! At this time, the lab’s primary research areas are exploring affect, habit, and identity. That said, prospective students are welcome to bring their own research ideas. If you believe BMED may be a good fit, we encourage you to get in touch with Dr. Rhodes regarding pursuing a PhD under his supervision!

Dr. Rhodes was recently appointed to as the Senior Co-Chair for the Society of Behavioral Medicine Theories and Techniques of Behavior Change Interventions Special Interest Group. He is looking forward to serving this group!

This January, the BMED lab has plenty of media coverage surrounding the idea of New Year intentions. See below for a news article, a podcast, and a magazine article. Check the media archive for past coverage!

Our team has created a website dedicated to the Multi-Process Action Control Model. Over the years, work within the lab indicated the need for a meta-theory to organize key concepts, bridge important streams of thinking, and generally inform interventions and promotion strategies. This approach was born as a result of collaboration and from years of studying physical activity behaviour promotion. On the website you will find information about the model and the constructs within it, schematics, and resources for health promotion practitioners and researchers alike. Visit the M-PAC website to see for yourself and learn more!

Dr. Rhodes has three presentations at the upcoming Society of Behavioral Medicine Annual Meeting!

The Behavioural Medicine Lab welcomes two incoming Master's students under Dr Rhodes' supervision. Madeline Juba and Stina Grant, who are currently working in the lab, are commencing graduate studies this January 2019!

A big congratulations goes out to Cassandra who successfully defended her thesis! Cassandra performed wonderfully and all attendees were extremely impressed by her knowledge, delivery, and composure. Her thesis examined exercise identity development using a mixed methods approach including qualitative interviews and a feasibility trial. Wow! Way to go on this incredible accomplishment!

The Behavioural Medicine Lab is excited to announce we will be welcoming Alex Lithopoulos as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow this fall. Alex brings with him some impressive accomplishments and expertise and we have no doubt he will make a wonderful complement to the lab. We are looking forward to Alex joining the team!

This May, Dr. Rhodes will be awarded the Silver Medal for Excellence in Research in the second annual UVic REACH Awards which will celebrate UVic scientists, scholars and artists for their extraordinary contributions in research and teaching. This award is presented to UVic's outstanding research scientist of the year with under twenty years since obtaining a PhD. We are so very proud of the Dr. Rhodes' contributions to the field - please join the BMED lab in congratulating Ryan on this exciting achievement!

Dr. Rhodes was excited to learn that two symposium presentations have been accepted for the ISBNPA 2018 Annual Meeting in Hong Kong.

Join us in congratulating Dr. Rhodes, who will be recognized as a Distinguished International Affiliate for his unusual and outstanding contributions to health psychology. Dr. Rhodes will be formally receiving this award in San Francisco this August.

The Behavioural Medicine Lab welcomes Stephan Renz, who arrives later this month as a Visiting International Research Student. Stephan is visiting from Wageningen University in the Netherlands where he is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Health and Society. Stephan brings a passion for physical activity and we are looking forward to him joining our research team this spring!

Dr. Rhodes and a few members of the BMed team will be attending the SBM conference in New Orleans this coming April. Read more to learn about presentation topics.

Last week in Ottawa Dr. Rhodes was inducted into the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Join us in congratulating Dr. Rhodes on this incredible achievement.

Wishing Alison well on her exciting new path.

The recent ISBNPA conference that was held in Victoria was a great event!

Congratulations Desmond McEwan on receiving the Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship!

A big congratulations goes out to Cassandra Husband on receiving a CIHR graduate scholarship!

Check out this new infograph on the top ten tips for turning exercise intentions into actions!

Interested in becoming more physically active!? The Bmed lab is recruiting for many new studies! Check out our participant information page for more details!

Check out a recent interview from CBC with Dr. Rhodes on how to stick to those New Year's physical activity goals!

Congratulations Dr. Rhodes and Clarise Lim on their recent publication in BMC Public Health on "Understanding action control of daily walking behavior among dog owners: a community survey".

Congratulations Dr. Rhodes and the Bmed lab on winning funding from the Canadian Cancer Society!

Congratulations Dr. Rhodes, Patrick Boudreau, Navin Kaushal and Alison Quinlan on your recent acceptance to the Society of Behavioral Medicine Conference to be held in San Diego in March 2017.

Dr. Rhodes is featured in the Institute on Aging and Lifelong Health's newsletter, "The Bulletin", in the Fall issue. The article congratulates Dr. Rhodes on his recent funding award from the Canadian Institute of Health Research and overviews some of his key research focus areas. Clarise is featured in the "Student Profile" section of the newsletter and talks about her journey to grad school and inspiration for her research. You can read the full newsletter here.

Dr. Rhodes and the Bmed lab recently won the Canadian Institute of Health Research Foundation Grant. This grant will be for seven years and will allow for the lab's research to build on the innovative area of identity and habit formation strategies to help people increase physical activity. Congratulations!

Looking for a little help with those New Year's physical activity resolutions!? We are currently conducting many exciting research studies exploring strategies for becoming more physically active and are seeking participants! With the new year underway it's time to learn strategies that will help get you active and stay active! Current projects include a Family Physical Activity Study which looks at increasing physical activity among the whole family, and a new-parent physical activity study for first-time parents two-months post-partum. For more information check out our on-going projects page or Contact us to see if you are eligible or have any questions!