Joonho is a Ph.D. candidate in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on the institutional and social contexts that foster groundbreaking entrepreneurial ideas and the dynamic interactions between entrepreneurs and these contexts. In his doctoral dissertation, he sets two arenas as primary research contexts: accelerators and Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants. He explores how startup ideas are shaped by peers and program directors in the same cohort during accelerator programs. He also examines how institutional factors within government grant programs unintentionally act as filters, favoring certain types of businesses based on their degree of novelty and knowledge spillover.

Prior to his doctoral study, Joonho worked for the Ministry of Science and ICT in South Korea, taking charge of multiple entrepreneurship support policy programs. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (2012) and Master of Public Policy (2019) from Seoul National University.