Rate My Professor Joe Boden

Professor Joe Boden is a Professor in the Department of Psychological Medicine at the University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand. He holds the position of Director and Principal Scientist of the Christchurch Health and Development Study (CHDS), a world-renowned longitudinal investigation tracking the health, development, and social outcomes of a cohort of 1,265 children born in Christchurch in 1977. Boden obtained his BA cum laude in Psychology from Boston University, followed by an MA and PhD in Psychology from Case Western Reserve University in 1995. Trained as an experimental social psychologist, he pursued academic positions in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia prior to joining the University of Otago in 2005. In 2019, he was appointed Director of the CHDS, and he was promoted to the rank of Professor effective 1 February 2020.

Boden's research specializations include the psychosocial causes and consequences of substance use, abuse, and dependence; epidemiology of mental health and substance use disorders; and the social and psychological determinants of maladaptive behaviours such as aggression and violence. Through the CHDS, his work explores life course outcomes linked to mental health disorders, substance abuse, behavioural problems from early childhood through adolescence, with particular attention to cannabis use effects. He was awarded the Gold Medal for Research Excellence in 2017 and served as a member of the Prime Minister's Chief Science Advisor Expert Panel on Cannabis in 2019. Notable publications co-authored by Boden encompass 'Genome-wide association study of major anxiety disorders in 122,341 European-ancestry cases identifies 58 loci and highlights GABAergic signaling' (Nature Genetics, 2026), 'Efficacy and safety of micronutrient treatment for irritability in teenagers: 8-week double-blinded randomized placebo-controlled trial (BEAM)' (Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2026), 'Genome-wide association meta-analysis of childhood ADHD symptoms and diagnosis identifies new loci and potential effector genes' (Nature Genetics, 2025), 'Long-term outcomes associated with adolescent ADHD symptomatology: birth cohort study' (2025), and 'Predictors of early-onset cancer risk: Insights from machine learning analyses of the Christchurch Health and Development Study data' (New Zealand Medical Journal, 2025). His scholarly output has accumulated over 28,500 citations according to Google Scholar metrics.