Palomar College Faculty Spotlight: Professor Swing Cheung

Professor Wing Cheung is a full-time Geography faculty member in the Earth, Space, and Environmental Sciences Department. He serves as the Program Coordinator for the Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Environmental Studies, as well as Drone Technology programs at Palomar College. His career in Geography and GIS started at the University of California - Los Angeles, where he earned his bachelor’s degrees in History and Geography/Environment Studies in 2005. He then went on to earn his master’s degrees in Public Affairs and Environmental Science at Indiana University - Bloomington. He decided to major in Public Affairs and Environmental Science because he wanted to work in the public sector and inform policymakers on environmental issues. This desire led to his fellowship with the United Nations Environment Programme as a Visiting Scientist, where he conducted research and published on the correlation between climate change and food insecurity in Ethiopia.

After teaching at Palomar College for six years, he decided to take a sabbatical and went back to school to pursue his doctoral degree at the University of California – Irvine in 2013. He worked in an interdisciplinary team of urban planners, civil engineers, and political scientists to deploy GIS and drones to improve flood hazard models. His dissertation, which was completed in 2017, looked at how technological tools (e.g. GIS, drones) as well as local knowledge can be used to validate and enhance flood hazard models. 
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Professor Cheung is a strong advocate of exposing students to real-world problem-solving through service-learning projects and internships. He invites you to stop by the GIS Lab at Palomar College’s San Marcos campus to learn about some of the real-world organizations that his GIS and drone students have helped over the years. You can also learn more about Palomar College’s GIS program at this website: https://www.palomar.edu/gis/

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