Woi Sok (Woi) Oh, Ph.D. (KO: 오의석)
Assistant Professor
Department of Systems Design Engineering
University of Waterloo
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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada, from August, 2025.
My research bridges the dynamics of humans, nature, infrastructure, and institutions as coupled systems using quantitative and computational approaches from complex system science. I focus on analyzing system resilience and establishing sustainable management in varying systems. These days, I am particularly interested in urban climate resilience and social disparity as well as human migration/displacement/mobility issues in the relationship with climate and conflict. To solve knowledge gaps, I apply statistical models, machine-learning models, information theoretical approaches, complex system models, network analysis, and causal inference. See more in detail.
Currently hiring PhD students!
I am hiring PhD students with my start-up funding. Please check the following Google form and apply if interested!: https://forms.gle/vz3DkYM25kCJzYXj6 ---- I am seeking fully funded Ph.D. students to join my new research group in the Dept. of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, starting as early as January 2026 (and possibly May or September 2026). I am looking for highly motivated students with strong computational and quantitative backgrounds who are interests in: 1. Climate migration 2. Resilient and just disaster management 3. Modeling and analyzing coupled natural-human systems 4. Quantitative analysis of social/collective decision-making and social tipping involving climate/weather/climate change Ideal candidate should hold a Bachelor's degree in Geography, System Engineering, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Complex Systems Science, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field. Priority will be given to those with research experience in system modeling, agent-based modeling, network theory, causal discovery, and geospatial data analysis in the proposed topics. If you are interested, please fill the Google form: https://forms.gle/vz3DkYM25kCJzYXj6. For more questions, please send an email to woisok.oh@uwaterloo.ca with the subject [Prospective student inquiry - NAME] (please send emails only for any further questions, not for stating your interest). Brief information on my group Woi Sok (Woi) Oh will be joining the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo as an Assistant Professor in August, 2025. His new research group will explore diverse interdisciplinary topics in Societal and Environmental Systems, including human migration, armed conflict, clean energy adoption, resource management, climate mitigation, climate justice. To understand the underlying mechanisms of human-environment interaction, his group will develop and apply computational techniques from complex systems approaches.