Heng Choon (Oliver) Chan, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Birmingham (previously affiliated with the Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences at City University of Hong Kong). He received his Ph.D. in Criminology from the University of South Florida, FL, USA, and was a recipient of the Outstanding Criminology Ambassador Award in 2012 and Distinguished Alumni Award in 2021.
To date, Dr. Chan has been presented with 9 awards to recognize his exemplary contributions to research and professional education; for instance, the Early Career Award (2014, Research Grant Council of the University Grants Committee, Hong Kong Government), The President’s Award (2017, Office of the President, CityU), CLASS New Researcher Award (2017, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences [CLASS], CityU), Outstanding Supervisor Award (2018, the Provost Office, CityU), and CLASS Teaching Innovation Award – Team Award (2019, CLASS, CityU). When he was in the U.S., Dr. Chan interned and later employed by the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department’s Homicide Case Review Units as one of its first two Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Violent Criminals Apprehension Program (ViCAP) analysts.
Dr. Chan is listed among the Top 2% of the most highly cited scientists in the world (in the sub-fields of criminology, legal and forensic medicine, and social sciences) based on the metrics compiled by Stanford University (October 2023). Importantly, he is ranked Top 0.6% in the sub-field of criminology.
His research focuses on sexual homicide, sexual offending, stalking behaviour, psycho-criminology, and Asian criminology. As of December 2023, Dr. Chan has published over 110 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. He has published 7 academic books, with 3 as the sole-authored monographs on sexual homicide and sexual offending (Wiley, 2023; Springer Nature, 2019; and Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), and another 4 as the lead co-editor of edited volumes on animal abuse and interpersonal violence (Wiley, 2023), the African mental health and criminal justice system (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), the international perspective of stalking behaviour (Wiley, 2020), and the psycho-criminological perspective of Asian criminal justice (i.e., police, correctional, and legal psychology; Routledge, 2017). His book on the stalking behaviour was selected and awarded the CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title 2020.