Profile

An-Min Wu, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor (Teaching) in the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Wu teaches spatial databases, spatial data acquisition, spatial analysis and geospatial technology project management in the online Geographic Information Science and Technology (GIST) Graduate programs and principles of spatial data analysis in the interdisciplinary doctoral program in Population, Health and Place. She also serves as thesis advisor to several M.S. students in GIST.

Wu’s research interests are in the integration of environmental sciences and geographic information science. In particular, she is interested in understanding the impacts of human disturbances to critical soil properties in both natural and urban environments, and their feedback to human health in various spatial and temporal scales.

Prior to joining the USC Spatial Sciences Institute, Wu was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Minnesota, where she identified the minimum detectable changes in soil carbon density in U.S. forests and provided spatial and temporal sampling recommendations to the Northern Research Station of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

Wu has worked as a GIS analyst, mapping engineer and mapping project manager. She is a certified remote pilot on small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, and is a Professional Soil Scientist In-Training.

In 2022-2023, Wu is a mentee in the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU) Asia Pacific Women in Leadership Mentoring Program (APWiL).

Wu served as the 2019-2020 Chair of the California Geographic Information Association (CGIA) and as a member of the USC Dornsife College Faculty Council, serving on its Research, Policy, and Documentation Caucus.

Education

Ph.D., Land and Atmospheric Science; Geographic Information Science minor, University of Minnesota
M.S., Soil Science, The Pennsylvania State University
M.E.P.C., Environmental Pollution Control, The Pennsylvania State University
B.S., Horticultural Science, National Taiwan University

Selected works and presentations

Wu, A., Hansen, A., LaBine, K., and Jelinski, N. Spatial distributions of soil lead across scales in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Areas, United States. 21st World Congress of Soil Science, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, August 2018.

Wu, A., and Swift, J. Approaches to today’s spatial database education challenges. Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA, April 2018.

Fissore, C., Dalzell, B.J., Berhe, A.A., Voegtle, M., Evans, M. & Wu, AInfluence of topography on soil organic carbon dynamics in a Southern California grassland. CATENA, 149, 140-149, 2017, doi:10.1016/i.catena.2016.09.016.

Wu, A., Identifying terrain attribute effects on soil organic carbon stock in US Forests. Paper presented at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, April 2017.

Wu, A., Nater, E.A., Perry, C.H., Dalzell, B.J. & Wilson, B.T. Change detection for soil carbon in the forest inventory and analysis. In S.M. Stanton & G.A. Christensen (Eds.), U.S. Department of Agriculture, Pushing Boundaries – New directions in Inventory Techniques and Applications; Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Symposium (pp.159-162). Portland, OR, 2015.