William is an Assistant Professor at the UBC Fisheries Centre since 2011, and is head of the Changing Ocean Research Unit (CORU). William obtained a BSc. (Biology) in 1998, and subsequently a M.Phil. in 2001 from the University of Hong Kong. After working in WWF Hong Kong for two years, he moved to Vancouver and completed his PhD in Resource Management and Environmental Studies in the UBC Fisheries Centre in 2007. He then worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the Sea Around Us project for two years. From 2009 to 2011, he was Lecturer in Marine Ecosystem Services in the School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia in the UK.
Currently, his main research area is on assessing impacts of fishing and climate change on marine ecosystems and their goods and services, and studying ways to reconcile trade-offs in their management. Specifically, he develops empirical and numerical simulation models to examine the impacts of climate change on marine biodiversity and fisheries, globally and in various regional seas. He applies interdisciplinary approaches to evaluate the trade-offs between ecological, economic and social objectives in managing coastal social-ecological systems. Moreover, his research involves the development and application of original approaches to study historical changes in fish stocks and ecosystems. He works on various interdisciplinary research projects with global collaboration networks in the U.K., China, Australia, Africa, USA and Canada. He has been a member of the IUCN Groupers and Wrasses Species Specialist Group since 2005 and serves on the editorial board of Fish and Fisheries and International Journal of Sustainable Society.
For more information, see Dr. Cheung's homepage here.