Dr CHEUNG Kin Wai Norman
Contact Info
Academic Profile
BA(Hons), MPhil (HKU), DPhil (Oxon)
Teaching Interests
- Physical Geography
- Climatology and Climate Change
- Hazards and Disaster Management
- Risk Assessment and Communication
- Environmental Change and Sustainable Development
Research Interests
- Tropical Cyclones and Extreme Weather
- Natural Hazards, Risk and Vulnerability Assessment
- Catastrophe and Disaster Planning
- Education
Personal Profile
Dr. Norman Cheung is a climatologist by training. He was a College Lecturer at the University of Oxford (Oxon) with teaching assignments at Christ Church, St Catherine’s, and Mansfield Colleges. After obtaining his DPhil in tropical climatology from the University of Oxford, he worked as a lecturer and then Senior Lecturer in Environmental Hazards and Disaster Management at Kingston University London (KUL). Upon a request from Cranfield University, he offered to teach a module “Managing Natural Disaster” for an MSc programme - Resilience. When he was in the United Kingdom, he was regularly invited by media, e.g., SKY NEWS, Bloomberg, Channel 4, Channel 5, LBC, Green TV, Al Jazeera, STINFO and financial times, to give commentaries on extreme weather, hurricanes, natural hazards and disaster management.
On returning to Hong Kong, he took up a role of Senior Catastrophe Analyst at SCOR Reinsurance (Asia) Company Limited, one of the world’s top 5 reinsurance companies, undertaking analysis and research on natural hazards, particularly tropical cyclones and earthquakes, with a focus on catastrophe modeling for Asian reinsurance market. After leaving SCOR, he joined The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) as a Senior Lecturer in Risk Analysis and Sustainability. He has been adopting various pedagogies including blended learning (flipped classroom), experiential- and field-based learning methodologies to achieve the outcomes-based teaching and learning objectives. Before working at the Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK), he has obtained practical teaching experiences in a Band-1 secondary school in Hong Kong as a geography teacher. His enthusiasm about education is driven by his passion on teaching, led by research, of geographical studies.
Research Publications
Cheung, N.K.W. 2022. On the Learning and Teaching of Geography in Our Modern Societies: A Subject, a Concept and a Tool. MI Research, Vol 3 (1), 29-33.
Cheung, N.K.W. 2021. Identifying the Naturalist Intelligence of Students in a MI School in Hong Kong, MI Research. Vol 2 (1), 27-29.
Cheung, N.K.W. and Axelsen, B.J. 2015. An Evaluation of the Public Response to Communicating Channels of Natural Hazard Warnings. Proceedings of the 10th Anniversary International Symposium of the Centre of Environmental Science and Disaster Mitigation for Advanced Research in Muroran, Japan on 13-14 March 2015.
Cheung, N. K. W. 2013. Super Cyclonic Storm Phailin: the strongest cyclone ever in the North Indian Ocean Basin. The Conversation.com, 12th Oct 2013.
(http://theconversation.com/super-cyclonic-storm-phailin-thestrongest-cyclone-ever-in-the-north-indian-ocean-basin-19128)
_____ Reprinted in LiveScience’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insight, 15th Oct 2013.
(https://www.livescience.com/40407-super-cyclonic-storm-phailin-the-strongest-cyclone-ever-in-the-north-indian-ocean-basin.html)
Cheung, N. K. W. 2013. Avoiding Annual Typhoon Catastrophes. The Conversation.com, 16th Jul 2013. (http://theconversation.com/avoiding-annual-typhoon-catastrophes-16094)
Cheung, N. K. W. 2006. The roles of ENSO on the occurrence of abruptly recurving tropical cyclones over the Western North Pacific Basin. Advances in Geosciences, 6, 139-148.
Cheung, N. K. W. 2003. Application of Fuzzy Method in New Tropical Cyclone Variation Research. In The Association of American Geographers 99th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, Louisiana, Mar 5-8, 2003, AAG.
Cheung, N. K. W. 2002. Analysis of the Interaction of Asian Monsoon Systems and El Nino in Tropical Cyclogenesis. In The Association of American Geographers 98th Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, Mar 19-23, 2002, AAG [CD-ROM].
Cheung, N. K. W. and Kyle, W. J. 2000. Trends in Seasonal Forecasting of Tropical Cyclone Activity. Australian Meteorological Magazine, 49, 201-223. (Cited in Eugene A. Sharkov (2000) Global Tropical Cyclogenesis, Springer Praxis, 370pp) Preston, A., Shaw, A. and Cheung, N.K.W. 2000. The weather at Oxford in 1999. The Journal of Meteorology, 25, 59-63.
Cheung, N. K. W. and Kyle, W. J. 1999. Hong Kong's Active Typhoon Season. Bulletin of Hong Kong Meteorological Society, 9, 16-45.
Cheung, N. K. W.1998. Seasonal Forecasting of Tropical Cyclones – The Case of the Western North Pacific Ocean. In New frontiers in Using Atmospheric Predictive Models, First National Conference organized by the Royal Meteorological Society and the Institute of Physics, 1998, Reading, U.K.
Cheung, N. K. W. 1998. ENSO-QBO and the Interannual Variability of Tropical Cyclone Activity over the Western North Pacific Ocean. In Australasian Atmospheres and Oceans ’98, A joint conference of the New Zealand Meteorological Society and the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Incorporating 5th National AMOS Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, 9-12 Feb 1998, AMOS Publication No.13.
Knowledge Transfer (Selected)
Cheung, N.K.W. 2022. A Quantitative Risk Analysis of Landfalling Tropical Cyclones in China. Hong Kong Geography Day, Hong Kong, 26 Nov 2022.
Cheung, N.K.W. 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016. (Invited) “Catastrophe Exposure and Reinsurance Coverage in Asia” for Master students of Assurance et gestion du risqué, Dauphine Universite Paris in SCOR.
Cheung, N.K.W. 2018. (Panelist) Catching the wave: new trends in environmental disclosure, risk and capital opportunities, organized by Civic Exchange, HKUST Business School Central, The Hong Kong Club Building, 17th April 2018.
Cheung, N.K.W. 2010. (Panelist) Food, Water and Weather, In Global Risk and Opportunity in a Dangerous World, Geopolitics for Investors and Business Leaders, organized by The Spectator and Spectator Business, Westminster, London, 14th September 2010.
Media Commentaries
NEWSWEEK
27th Mar 2023 provided commentary on the intensity of hurricanes at different ocean basins in “Why hurricanes don’t cross the equator”
https://www.newsweek.com/hurricane-crossing-equator-weather-physics-1790522
BLOOMBERG
30th Oct 2012 provided commentary on hurricane Sandy and its financial implication
SKY NEWS
12th Oct 2014 provided commentary on severe tropical cyclone hudhud and its impact on India
11th Nov 2013 provided commentary on humanitarian crisis unfolding in the Philippines by super-typhoon Haiyan
10th Nov 2013 provided commentary on the physical mechanisms for causing the extent of damages by Haiyan in the Philippines and Vietnam
28th Oct 2013 provided commentary on St Jude Storm hitting the south of the United Kingdom
12th Oct 2013 provided commentary on disaster management of cyclone Phailin in North Indian Ocean Basin
21st May 2013 provided commentary on tornado hazards and disaster management in Moore and Oklahoma
29th Oct 2012 provided commentary on hurricane Sandy, Frankestorm, its potential impact of storm surge on northeast America
29th Jun 2012 provided commentary on hailstorm and flash flood affecting Northern Ireland, North England and Scotland in June 2012 and their disaster management
1st Sept 2008 provided commentary on hurricane Gustav.
21st Aug 2007 provided commentary on hurricane Dean and its impact in Caribbean.
2nd Sep 2005 provided commentary on the disaster management subsequent to hurricane
Katrina.
Channel 4
8th Nov 2013 provided commentary on the physical mechanisms for the record-breaking intensity of super-typhoon Haiyan.
Channel 5
12th Nov 2013 provided commentary on the relationship between the occurrence of super-typhoon and global warming.
28th Oct 2013 provided commentary on the disaster management for St Jude Storm hitting the south of the United Kingdom.
LBC
10th Nov 2013 provided commentary on super-typhoon Haiyan’s damage in the Philippines.
Green TV
19th Jan 2012 provided commentary on Asian summer monsoon activity in 2011 and 2012.
Al Jazeera
Jul. 2009 provided commentary on El Nino and its impact on extreme weather.
STINFO
10th Nov 2013 provided commentary on the development of Haiyan and its potential impact on Vietnam. The commentary is published in a special edition of the Science and Technology Information Magazine (STINFO) in Vietnamese language at the end of November.
Financial Times etc.
11th Nov 2013 My comments, to the Science Media Centre, about the wind engineering of building damage in the Philippines by typhoon Haiyan was not only quoted by Financial Times in “Science of storms: The phenomenon that powered typhoon Haiyan”, but also picked up by AFP news agency resulting in coverage in Le Monde, 24 Heures and a number of other French language news outlets as far afield as Canada and Tahiti.
Scholarly Work (Selected)
External Appointments:
• HKDSE Geography Subject Committee Member, Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (2023 –
• Member, Curriculum Development Council – Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority Committee (2023 –
External examiner:
• For The Postgraduate Certificate in Leading Process Hazard Safety Studies at the College of Business, Department of Corporate Learning, University of Derby, 3/2014 – 4/2015.
• For PhD thesis, University of Vigo, Spain (2010).
International journal editorship
• Scientific Advisory Panel, The Science for Population Protection, Czech Republic (2015).
• Editorial Board, Journal of Comprehensive social Science Research, Gexin Publications, India (2023 –).
Journal Review:
• For Scottish Geographical Journal (2011)
• For International Journal of Geosciences (2010)
• For Area (2005)
Book Review:
• Cheung, N. K. W. 2007. Review of "At Risk: Natural Hazards, People's Vulnerability and Disasters" by Wisner, B; Blaikie, P; Cannon, T and Davis Ian, The Geographical Journal, 173, 189-190.
• Cheung, N.K.W. 2007. Review of “Undiscovered Oceans: From Macro Polo to Francis Drake” by Anthony Deane, The Geographical Journal, 173, 290.