Pyung Kim

(Name pronunciation: P-young Kim)

I am an incoming Postdoctoral Scholar at the Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. My research lies at the intersection of geography, public policy, and data science. My work has three primary threads:

1. Neighborhood Effects: Examining how neighborhood environments shape health and socioeconomic outcomes.
2. AI for Health & Policy: Applying machine learning to forecast emerging health risks and design proactive policy interventions.
3. Spatial Causal Inference: Developing spatial analytic methods to understand why policy impacts vary across places.

As a PI and GIS specialist, I have contributed to numerous grant-funded projects supported by U.S. federal agencies such as the Social Security Administration (SSA), the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), and the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC). I am committed to translating place-based social challenges into theoretical frameworks that can be rigorously evaluated with empirical data.

Research Interests

• Neighborhood Effects
• Human and Health Geography
• Environment, Health, and Disability
• Spatial Data Science and AI for Public Policy
• Spatial Causal Inference and Policy Evaluation

Contact Me

pyung.kim@utdallas.edu
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