Dr Thong Tran is an Honorary Lecturer at Fenner School of Environment and Society, College of Science, The Australian National University, where he obtained his PhD in Human Ecology in 2017. His research agenda focuses on climate-development dynamics and sustainability in mainland Southeast Asia. He works on interdisciplinary areas of environmental governance with a particular focus on (transboundary) environmental commons, rural agricultural innovations, climate change adaptation, social learning, livelihood resilience, environmental justice, and institutional change. From January 2018 to May 2021, he was a Research Fellow at Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, working on transboundary water challenges driven by upstream hydropower development and climate change in the Mekong region. Currently, he is a Research Fellow (Human Geography) at School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Melbourne, engaging in an ACIAR-funded project "Next generation agricultural extension: Social relations for practice change" led by Associate Professor Brian Robert Cook. The project aims to reconceptualise agricultural extension as social relations and develop a social model of agricultural extension, focusing on Battambang and Pailin provinces in Cambodia.

Dr Thong Tran serves as an Associate Editor for (1) Society and Natural Resources and (2) Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of (1) Journal of Flood Risk Management providing an international platform for knowledge sharing in all areas related to flood risk, and (2) International Journal of Water Resources Development publishing developments in water management and policy-making for water resources.