Professor Dr. Hong Ching Goh is an interdisciplinary social scientist specializing in human-environment interactions, with a foundation in urban and tourism planning and geography. Her research spans urbanized areas, resource-rich regions, and protected zones, focusing on how communities benefit from nature—through livelihoods, health, and intangible values—while addressing threats from anthropogenic pressures and governance challenges. Since 2005, her fieldwork in Sabah has informed her broader coastal research across Southeast Asia. Currently, she is based at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, and leads the Humanities and Social Sciences Group at the Malaysia National Antarctic Research Centre. A registered town planner, she is also country coordinator for ForUm, a DAAD-funded Southeast Asia–Germany urban futures network. A former DAAD Doctoral Scholar and MIT-UTM Sustainable Cities Fellow, she was a fellow of the ASEAN Science Leadership Program and Global Young Academy. She has secured RM6.9 million in research funding and contributed to the GBP6.4 million GCRF grant. Her interdisciplinary work has been recognized by the British High Commission and in 2024, she was named DAAD Research Ambassador and received the Top Research Scientists Malaysia Award.