Hong Ching

Goh Hong Ching is a senior lecturer at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya. She holds a Doctor of Natural Science degree (Geography) from Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitaet Bonn, Germany. She received a Bachelor degree in Urban and Regional Planning then a M.Sc. degree in Tourism Planning, from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. She worked five years in real estate sector before pursuing her doctoral study when she received a 3-year scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Services (DAAD) in 2004 and was attached to the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn as junior researcher. She is a corporate member of Malaysia Institute of Planners (MIP) and a registered member of Board of Town Planners Malaysia. She is also an active member of the Forum for Urban Future in Southeast Asia, a network of Southeast Asian and German Experts, funded by DAAD and the BMZ 2006-2012. Recently, she has been accepted to participate in the 9-month MIT-UTM Sustainable Cities Program which takes place in UTM Skudai, Malaysia and MIT Cambridge MA, US for the academic year of 2014/2015. At present, she is heading the Land Use Governance Unit under the Spatial-Environmental Governance for Sustainability Research Centre (UMSERGE). She has two main research focuses, i.e., in tourism and in urban studies, For the former, she focuses on tourism governance and tourism impacts in protected areas, and for the latter, on urban studies, natural resource governance, as well as urbanization related risks. In Feb 2015, she becomes a member of the Global Young Academy, of which her membership will serve a 5-year term.