I investigate the health effects of environmental conditions and conduct theoretical and methodological research to enhance causal inference in observational studies. At the core of my work is a commitment to resolving uncertainties across the research pipeline to better inform environmental health decisions. Building upon my domain knowledge and real-world experience in environmental health, epidemiology, and exposure assessment, my work bridges epidemiologic, biostatistical, and computational methods to develop integrated frameworks for large-scale data integration, environmental exposure modeling, outcome modeling, and bias correction. These aim to create accurate and reliable exposure and health data and improve the accuracy and precision of health effect estimates, especially in non-ideal or suboptimal data settings, and computational efficiency to test understudied hypotheses in environment, climate, and health.

To me, epidemiology, biostatistics, and data science are tools to advance environmental health. My training spans environmental and health sciences, complemented by hands-on experience with in-situ measurements during my undergraduate and postgraduate studies. I rely on core principles in environmental chemistry, physics, and biology, and because many real-world data are inherently imperfect (e.g., measurement error, selection process, and limited information), I view scientific theory as essential for guiding effective data preprocessing and modeling. I also maintain a personal interest in social science, philosophy, and the use of epidemiology, risk assessment, and environmental health in legal contexts.

I believe that good science requires more than simply applying computational algorithms; it begins with an understanding of the nature we investigate, the data we analyze, and the processes that generate them. I spend much of my time reading the literature, examining the data, and reflecting on study design long before I begin computational modeling.

My research spans substantive studies as well as theoretical, methodological, and simulation studies.

My research has appeared in leading journals of medicine, epidemiology, environmental health, and methods, such as American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Environmental Health Perspectives, American Journal of Epidemiology, International Journal of Epidemiology, and Environment International. Several papers presenting my most recent theoretical and methodological work are currently under review. My work has been supported by NIH, National Research Foundation of Korea, and other agencies. I am committed to integrating research, teaching, and mentoring to advance environmental health and train the next generation of scientists.

English is my second language, and I learned to speak and listen only after my mid-20s. As a first-generation college student and the primary breadwinner for my family of three in my early adulthood, I care about capacity building.