Dr. Zhixu (Rick) Yang is an organizational psychologist and Director of the Conflict and Well-being (CoWell) Lab. His research examines how people experience and navigate conflict across multiple levels, including competing personal goals, divergent interpersonal perspectives, and marginalized group identities, and how these experiences shape individual and organizational well-being. Drawing on theories from social, cognitive, cultural, and organizational psychology, his work employs a wide range of methods, including psychometrics, longitudinal and experimental designs, multilevel modeling, and qualitative approaches.

Dr. Yang's research has been published in leading journals and handbooks, such as Nature Reviews Psychology, Applied Psychology: An International Review, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Translational Issues in Psychological Science, and the Handbook of Experimental Social Psychology. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Business and Psychology and has served as an ad hoc reviewer for more than a dozen academic journals.

Dr. Yang is an Assistant Professor of Industrial-Organizational Psychology at Baruch College, City University of New York, and is affiliated with the CUNY Graduate Center, where he mentors doctoral students. He teaches Research Methods in Psychology at the undergraduate level and Applied Statistical Analysis at the graduate level. He is passionate about mentoring and collaborating with students from diverse backgrounds and at different stages of their academic and professional development.