
Dr. So-Min Cheong is an Associate Professor in the Public Service & Administration Department at the Bush School. Dr. Cheong's current research focuses on the social and health consequences of environmental disasters and climate change adaptation including oil spills, floods, extreme heat, and wildfires. Her recent work also addresses renewable energy and entrepreneurship and stakeholder analysis. She is the author of numerous publications in top interdisciplinary environmental and policy journals such as: Nature Climate Change; Climatic Change; Ecology and Society; Environment and Planning; Sensors; IEEE Access; and Marine Policy.
She has also worked on a number of commissioned reports for the Korean government, UNESCO, and WMO, and served as a lead author of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) and the IPCC Special Report on ocean and cryosphere (SROCC). Previously she was an author of the IPCC SREX and AR5, and participated in IPCC scoping meetings for SROCC and AR6. Her awards include the National Academies Gulf Research Program grant and NSF CAREER award.
Dr. Cheong received her PhD in Geography, and MA degrees in Marine Affairs and International Studies at the University of Washington. She earned her BA in English from Yonsei University in Korea, and was an exchange student at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Prior to joining the Bush School in 2022, she was an associate professor at the University of Kansas. She was also a visiting professor at Yale, Stanford, NYU, and BRGM (French Geological Survey).