With over 13,000 alumni worldwide, the IHS Alumni Network gathers international experts in urban development from across the globe. In this series, we reconnect with some familiar faces and find out more about their professional path after graduation. Meet Dr Yirang Lim, a MSc alumna of IHS who has also completed her PhD at the institute.
Meet Yirang
Dr Yirang Lim works as an Assistant Professor at TU Delft. Her work connects governance with the day-to-day management of civil infrastructure, particularly in relation to long-term sustainability goals. She previously studied at IHS, where she completed both her master’s degree and PhD.
From design to urban governance
Yirang’s academic interests began in design during her bachelor’s degree and gradually evolved into a focus on how spaces are organised and experienced. This focus later expanded from individual spaces to the broader structure of cities. At IHS, she specialised in urban management and climate change, where her master’s thesis examined smart city initiatives in Korea and their role in climate change adaptation, laying the foundation for her doctoral research.
Completing a PhD at IHS
After completing her master's, Yirang returned to Korea and began working at a research institute. The experience allowed her to deepen her interest in research and reflect on the direction she wanted to take next. Growing up, she saw the life of a scholar through her father, a professor whose curiosity and commitment to learning left a lasting impression on her and quietly shaped the path she would later follow.
She went back to IHS to pursue a PhD in Urban Development and Governance. During her PhD, she focused on understanding how smart city development influences the sustainability of cities. Her research explored both the opportunities and challenges of smart city initiatives, combining theoretical insights with empirical evidence from South Korea, where the national government actively promotes smart city development.
Guiding the next generation
After successfully defending her dissertation and completing her PhD, Yirang joined the Institute for Urban Excellence in The Hague, where she contributed to EU HORIZON project, ‘Driving a just transition toward low carbon cities.’ After this, she started as a postdoctoral researcher at the Integral Design and Management section at Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geoscience, TU Delft in 2022. Her research focused on resilient infrastructure, shifting her attention from the scale of the city to the systems that support it; including roads, water infrastructure and utilities.
In 2025, Yirang took up a position as an assistant professor at the same section, working on sustainability transitions. Much of her time is spent developing research projects, collaborating with colleagues, and publishing academic work. Her role also includes a teaching component, where she guides students working on topics related to sustainability and infrastructure, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Meeting the younger generation of students is something very exciting. It’s not just about transferring knowledge, but also about engaging with them and listening to how they view things.
Understanding sustainability in practice
Much of Yirang’s current research looks at how sustainability goals are translated into everyday infrastructure management. One of her research interests focuses on what she calls: integrative governance, understanding how strategic sustainability ambitions can be translated into operational decision-making.
In practice, she has found that different institutions often approach sustainability from very different time perspectives. For example, municipal departments responsible for maintaining infrastructure may plan within five- to ten-year cycles, while national institutions dealing with climate-related challenges often work with much longer time horizons.
One sentence at a time
Yirang’s journey into academia has been shaped by curiosity, persistence and a deep interest in understanding how cities evolve. For those considering a PhD or a career in research, her advice is simple: focus on steady progress rather than the distance still ahead. Small steps, she found, make it easier to keep moving forward.
"When I was doing my PhD, I tried to focus on day-to-day progress. I would tell myself: I’m just going to read one sentence or write one sentence today. That mindset helped me keep going, even on the days when I didn’t feel like it," Yirang adds.
