Hi, I’m Joe! Welcome to my site (work in progress) - a melting pot of my past work, current interests, and personal musings!

I was born in Koreatown, Los Angeles and grew up in the San Gabriel Valley. I completed a BS/MS in environmental engineering at UC Berkeley 🐻 in 2014. After my studies at Berkeley, I worked as an environmental consultant in Oakland, and as an air quality engineer for the US EPA regional office in Chicago.

I enjoyed my professional experience in consulting and in government, but I was always curious about research. So in 2017, I started my PhD in environmental engineering at the University of Southern California 🛡️. For my doctoral work, I studied black carbon aerosols ⚫ and the urban heat island effect 🌆, using both field measurements and modeling.

I finished my PhD in December 2022, and currently I am a postdoctoral research scientist at the Columbia Climate School, where I’m working on improving parameterizations of ice cloud ☁️ microphysics using machine learning 🤖.

When I’m not doing research, I like skateboarding, visiting new cities, eating good food, and interesting art.

Email: jk4730@columbia.edu