Junghwan Kim

Dr. Junghwan Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography at Virginia Tech, with affiliations to the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). His research focuses on human mobility, environmental health, geospatial data science, and GIS privacy/ethics. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), an MUP from UIUC, and a B.S. in Urban Planning and Engineering (Summa Cum Laude) from Yonsei University. Before joining Virginia Tech, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University's Center for Geographic Analysis.

• Education:
  • Ph.D., Geography, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2021)
  • MUP, Urban Planning, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2018)
  • B.S., Urban Planning and Engineering, Yonsei University (2016)
• Research Interests: Human mobility patterns, geospatial data science (including AI/GIS integration), environmental health disparities, and privacy ethics in geospatial data.

His work emphasizes socio-spatial equity, leveraging geospatial tools to address urban challenges like healthcare accessibility, green space distribution, and pandemic-related mobility shifts. He has received over a dozen awards, including the AAG Outstanding Graduate Student Paper Award and APA Smart Cities Design Competition win. His grants include projects on veterans' healthcare access, autonomous transportation interfaces, and AI-driven green space analysis.

Dr. Kim teaches courses on GIS principles, generative AI in social science, and geospatial mobility analysis. He leads the Smart Cities for Good (SCG) research group, collaborating with interdisciplinary teams to advance smart city technologies for social and environmental justice.