Meet the IMPACT research team

PI of the IMPACT Lab

Soh Young In

Assistant Professor, KAIST · Research Fellow, Stanford SFI si2131@kaist.ac.kr

Soh Young In is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and an Affiliate Faculty of the Graduate School of Green Growth and Sustainability at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST). She also serves as a Research Fellow at the Sustainable Finance Initiative (SFI) at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. Before joining KAIST, Soh Young led financial innovation research at the Stanford SFI for 4 years, and she also served as the Director of Sustainable Finance Research at the Stanford University Korea Center.

Soh Young’s research interest is demonstrating environmental, social, and economic incentives related to low-carbon transition and implementing sustainable and resilient infrastructure systems through behavior change of various stakeholders. She studies corporate management, investment strategies, infrastructure development, and public policies required to adopt and mitigate risks posed by climate change and decarbonization transition. Her three main research topics are Climate Risk Analysis, Sustainable Integration, and Data-Driven System Transformation.

Her interdisciplinary research is uniquely positioned as it integrates technology, finance, and policy innovation to accelerate the global net-zero transition. Soh Young received research awards from the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) in 2016 and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Energy Council in 2017. She conducted collaborative research with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and its Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL) on fostering entrepreneurship in the cleantech sector.

Soh Young holds a B.A. in Economics and Statistics from Columbia University, an M.A. in International Policy from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. In her professional career, Soh Young has worked for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the Korea Development Bank (KDB), and the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and is an economic and financial advisor to the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

LinkedIn ↗ ResearchGate ↗ Google Scholar ↗

Researchers

Current members

Esther Sekyoung Choi

in ↗

Visiting Professor esther.choi@kaist.ac.kr

Climate financeNature financeBlended finance

Esther Sekyoung Choi is Research Lead at World Resources Institute (WRI) and a Lead Author for the Finance Chapter of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Seventh Assessment Report. With over a decade of experience across climate finance and international governance, she has held research and policy roles at Stanford University’s Sustainable Finance Initiative, the Green Climate Fund, the World Bank, and the Global Green Growth Institute.

Her work focuses on scaling private-sector contributions to climate and nature action through blended finance, de-risking strategies, and enabling early-stage climate startups, particularly in emerging and developing economies. She currently serves as a Visiting Professor at KAIST, where her research and teaching focus on sustainable finance, climate startup ecosystems, and the institutional conditions that enable climate innovation to scale.

Sieun Park

in ↗

Ph.D. Student iop0130@kaist.ac.kr

Financial modelingClimate-related financial risk

Sieun is interested in analyzing climate-related financial risks at the asset level and developing financial models for this purpose. She has experience participating in projects related to developing climate risk management models for private enterprises. She envisions advancing the climate risk assessment framework through interdisciplinary research. She holds a B.S. in Climate and Energy Systems Engineering and an M.S. in Green Growth and Sustainability.

Heeyeon Kim

in ↗

Ph.D. Student heeyeon_kim@kaist.ac.kr

Climate PolicyCarbon MarketsInstitutional Design

Heeyeon Kim focuses on how institutional rules and market-based climate policies translate collective environmental goals into incentives and decisions for private actors, and how these decisions shape market and environmental outcomes. Her broader research interests include climate policy, carbon markets, institutional and market design, energy and environmental economics, and decision-making. She holds a B.A. in Economics and an M.S. in Green Growth and Sustainability. Before joining the lab, she worked at SK Research Institute for SUPEX Management.

Beomseo Kim

in ↗

Ph.D. Student kbs0799@kaist.ac.kr

ML for infrastructureRisk quantification

Beomseo focuses on modeling the interaction between climate variability and energy systems. His work applies machine learning to time-series and geospatial data to uncover patterns, quantify risk, and forecast system behavior. Current projects emphasize scalable pipelines, interpretability, and scenario-based assessment for resilient infrastructure planning. He aims to translate rigorous modeling into practical tools for policy and operations. He holds a B.S. in Civil & Environmental Plant Engineering and an M.S. in Civil & Environmental Engineering.

Nahyung Kang

in ↗

Ph.D. Student kangnhmk6432@kaist.ac.kr

Sustainable Infrastructure PlanningInfrastructure Systems & Decision-Making

Nahyung is interested in planning and decision-making for sustainable infrastructure systems. Her research explores how infrastructure development and operational decisions can account for system constraints, resource availability, reliability, climate risks, and future uncertainty. She is particularly interested in urban and energy infrastructure systems, their interdependencies, and how they can be planned and financed under changing climate conditions. She holds a B.S. in Chemistry and an M.S. in Green Growth and Sustainability with a minor in Data Science.

Hayoon Song

in ↗

Ph.D. Student hayoonsong00@kaist.ac.kr

Climate risk & opportunity assessmentSustainable finance

Hayoon is interested in assessing climate risks and opportunities, as well as sustainable finance. Prior to joining the lab, she gained extensive experience in net-zero consulting projects at the Green Value Creation Center, focusing on enhancing corporate sustainability. She holds a B.S. in Climate and Energy Systems Engineering and Economics and an M.S. in Green Growth and Sustainability.

Minjung Park

in ↗

M.S. Student mj1203@kaist.ac.kr

Climate Technology & Industrial Transition

Minjung is interested in climate technology, industrial transition, and the economic impacts of climate change. Her research focuses on climate technology diffusion through interactions among governments, firms, startups, and institutions, with a growing interest in the impacts of climate-related risks on firms and industries. She holds a B.A. in Sustainable Development and Cooperation (SDC) and Economics.