About

Dr. Steve Hoong Chen Teo

Postdoctoral research fellow · Professorship for Earth System Modelling ·
Munich Climate Center, Technical University of Munich (TUM) ·
Department of Complexity Science, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

I am a climate and ecosystem scientist working at the intersection of nature, people, and policy.

Integrating earth science, ecology, and causal inference, I study socio-ecological resilience under a changing climate, and stress-test whether our environmental commitments truly deliver.

I have spent most of my life in Southeast Asia, with family across four countries and friends and collaborators in more. Our region is central to climate challenges yet underrepresented in science and the global agenda. My research brings evidence from the tropics and Southeast Asia into global climate, conservation, and supply-chain policy.

I hope to use science and human values to solve real-world problems. I have published as first author in many top Nature journals, with work cited and used by global institutions, governments, and local communities. I have led applied research and consultancy projects, and was honoured to serve as Singapore's national expert representative to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP27 scientific proceedings.

I graduated as the top science PhD researcher from the National University of Singapore, the top bachelor's student in environmental science from the University of Nottingham, and achieved top possible grades in the Singapore Cambridge A-levels at Raffles Institution. During national service in the Singapore Army, I was awarded Best Soldier of the Month and the Commander's Coin.

Dr. Steve Hoong Chen Teo

People & places

A boat on a river near Iquitos, Peru — Reaching field sites by river near Iquitos, Peru.

Nature-based solutions conference at Oxford University — Nature-based solutions conference, Oxford University.

With fellow researchers at Yangambi, DR Congo — With researchers at the UNFCCC COP27 meeting in Yangambi, DR Congo.

A passive warming chamber over tundra vegetation in Sweden — A passive warming chamber in Sweden heats the vegetation inside it, to test how vegetation responds to a warmer climate.

Researchers measuring a tree trunk with a tape while a colleague records data on a tablet, Singapore — Ground measurements of trees in Singapore.

Biological sciences graduate conference, Thailand — Biological sciences graduate conference, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

A camera trap strapped to a tree in forest at Krau, Peninsular Malaysia — A camera trap logs the animals that pass this tree, at Krau in Peninsular Malaysia.

At the COP27 scientific meeting at Yangambi, Democratic Republic of the Congo — At the COP27 scientific meeting held at Yangambi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.