Junghwan Kim, PhD, MUP
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Virginia Tech
Director, Smart Cities for Good
Junghwan Kim, PhD, MUP
Biosketch
Dr. Junghwan Kim received his PhD in Geography (2021) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). He also holds a B.S. in Urban Planning and Engineering (Summa Cum Laude) from Yonsei University (2016) in South Korea and a Master of Urban Planning (MUP) from the UIUC (2018). Before joining Virginia Tech, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Geographic Analysis (CGA) at the Institute of Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University. His research interests include human mobility (e.g., travel behavior and accessibility), environmental health, the application of geospatial data science methods (e.g., integrating GenAI with geospatial methods), and geospatial data privacy/ethics. His works have been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Journal of Transport Geography, Cartography and Geographic Information Science, Environmental Research, Science of the Total Environment, and Travel Behaviour and Society.
In addition to his academic career, he worked as a transportation planning modeler (internship) at Champaign County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) for about two years. In his spare time, he enjoys walking, listening to music, watching public transportation systems (e.g., trains and planes), and playing the piano.
Awards
Dr. Kim's works have been recognized with several awards.
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American Association of Geographers (AAG) Council Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award (2019)
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Peter Gould Student Paper Award from the AAG Health and Medical Geography Specialty Group (2019)
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2023 Most Downloaded Paper Awards (co-authored paper; Annals of GIS) (2023)
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Student Research Presentation Award from the Race/Ethnicity/Place Conference, First Prize (2020)
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American Planning Association (APA) Transportation Planning Division Student Paper Award, Third Prize (2018)
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APA National Smart Cities Student Design Competition Winner (in Team, 2017)
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Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award from the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the UIUC (2018)
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Student Paper Award from the Korean-American Association for Geospatial and Environmental Sciences (2020)
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President Award from the Korean Planning Association (2016)
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Recipient of the Study Abroad Scholarship and National Science and Engineering Scholarship from the South Korean Government (2016)