Rui Zhu

spatial@ucsb Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2021–2022

Rui Zhu is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol (UK). He is a geographer by training with a background in data science (so you can call him a spatial data scientist). Broadly speaking, he studies how humans and machines organize spatial knowledge, as well as their interactions with the environment. More specifically, he combines theory-informed (e.g., geography and semantics) and data-driven (e.g., machine learning and spatial statistics) approaches to address geospatial challenges such as geospatial data interoperability, spatial predictions, and spatial reasoning. His work has been applied to a wide range of applications, including urban studies, global health, environmental modeling, as well as humanitarian relief.

Rui was a postdoctoral scholar at the Center from 2021–2022. He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2020, supervised by Dr. Krzysztof Janowicz and Dr. Phaedon Kyriakidis. He holds a M.S. degree in Information Science from the University of Pittsburgh working with Dr. Hassan Karimi. He can be contacted at rui.zhu@bristol.ac.uk.