Professor TPr Dr Goh Hong Ching is an interdisciplinary social scientist specialising in socio-ecological planning. Her research examines human-environment interactions to advance climate resilience, sustainable development, and community well-being through participatory planning and governance. Integrating natural and social sciences, her work spans urban and regional planning, tourism planning, coastal and marine governance, and nature-based solutions, bridging research, policy, and practice to address complex sustainability challenges. She is currently attached to Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, Universiti Malaya and holds the position as the deputy director of National Antarctica Research Centre Malaysia. She is a registered corporate member of Malaysia Institute of Planners and the Board of Town Planners Malaysia.  

Selected as one of the Top Research Scientists Malaysia 2024 and elected as a fellow of Academy of Sciences Malaysia in 2026, Professor Goh has made significant contributions to national research, policy development, and sustainability initiatives. She has served on the review of the Malaysian Urban Rural National Indicators Network on Sustainable Development 2.0 (MURNInets) under PLANMalaysia, funded by the Ministry of Economy, the Social Impact Assessment Panel for PLANMalaysia Selangor, the Malaysia Research Universities Network (MRUN) Grant Assessment Committee, and the Ministry of Higher Education Research Fund Monitoring Panel. Within the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, she serves on the Environment Committee and the Environmental Pillar Working Group for Science Outlook 2025. Her research has generated tangible societal impact especially through long-term engagement with coastal communities in Tun Mustapha Park, Sabah apart from her early doctoral research in Kinabalu Park, where she has advanced marine and coastal conservation, sustainable tourism, and community livelihood resilience. By integrating scientific knowledge with participatory approaches, her work has strengthened environmental stewardship while enhancing local capacity for sustainable natural resource management.

Internationally, Professor Goh has secured and led several competitive research grants, including the UKRI Global Challenges Research Fund (Blue Communities), the Newton-Ungku Omar Fund, and two British Academy-funded projects, PANACEA and RECAP SEA, which advance coastal resilience, nature-based solutions, and research capacity development across Southeast Asia. She has been recognised as a DAAD Research Ambassador, a Fellow of the ASEAN Science Leadership Programme, and one of the 100 Women Scientists in Global Polar Research. Her international contributions include serving as a reviewer for the Blue Paper prepared for the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy initiated by World Resources Institute and the Global State of Young Scientists (GloSYS): Africa published by the Global Young Academy.

Most recently, Professor Goh was appointed as a peer reviewer for the British Academy's International Interdisciplinary Research Projects 2027 and awarded the prestigious Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) Expert Group Fellowship 2025-2026, through which she and her team will develop a policy brief to be presented at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2026.

Professor Goh's scholarship is driven by a commitment to integrating science, policy, and society to address complex socio-ecological challenges and build more sustainable and resilient futures.