SPDC welcomes Associate Professor Jun-Hyun Kim to the Landscape Architecture Program

This fall, SPDC welcomed Associate Professor Jun-Hyun Kim, PhD, to the Landscape Architecture Program where he also serves as program leader.

Photo of Jun-Hyun Kim, associate professor of landscape architecture
Jun-Hyun Kim, associate professor of landscape architecture

This fall, the School of Planning, Design and Construction (SPDC) welcomed Associate Professor Jun-Hyun Kim, PhD, to the Landscape Architecture Program where he also serves as program leader.

He comes to SPDC from the Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Planning at Texas A&M University. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture and a masters of Landscape Architecture from Sunkyunkwan University in South Korea; and a PhD in Urban and Regional Science from Texas A&M.

During his academic career, Kim has been teaching a wide spectrum of core landscape architecture courses, including introductory and advanced landscape design studios, and construction courses. At MSU, he will continue teaching landscape design studios and construction courses.

He has also been involved a study abroad program in Costa Rica, and has brought more than 10 service-learning projects to his teaching.

Kim has been named the recipient of several awards, including the 2017 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA), the 2014-2015 Montague-CTE Scholar University Teaching Award, the 2014 Outstanding Instructor Award, and the 2015 Outstanding Mentor Award from TAMU. He also received the 2015 CELA Excellence in Research and Creative Works Award.

Kim said, “It is with great pleasure that I accept this tremendous opportunity to join the Landscape Architecture Program in SPDC. I am looking forward to bringing my best to our program and school.”

The overarching goal of Kim’s research is to assess the influence of the natural and built environment on promoting ecological and human health outcomes. He has been involved in several research projects assessing the influence of the natural and built environment on enhancing community value and promoting public health.

Kim's recent research includes the role of landscape spatial patterns on walking, physical activity and health-related quality of life by assessing both subjective and objective measures, including self-administrated surveys, GIS, GPS, remote sensing and landscape indices.

With his work, Kim was awarded several research grants from diverse agencies, including the Active Living Research program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Based on his recent findings, with multidisciplinary collaboration with scholars having a wide range of research backgrounds, he will expand his research agenda to assess the role of landscape design and planning on enhancing neighborhood environments with ecological perspectives with colleagues in MSU.

Please join us in welcoming Jun-Hyun Kim to Michigan State University and the School of Planning, Design and Construction!

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