Wenrui Xu 徐文睿(Erik🦁)

👋🦁Hi! I am a first-year Ph.D. student in Environmental Planning at UC Berkeley, where I am fortunate to be advised by Prof. Lu Liang (LAEP) and work closely with Prof. Emma Pierson (EECS, BAIR).

I use geospatial data and artificial intelligence to study environmental hazards, public health, and socioeconomic conditions across places and populations. My current work focuses on adapting, interpreting, and evaluating geospatial foundation models and vision-language models for these domains, with particular attention to their reliability and alignment with human and societal needs. Broadly, my research connects geospatial AI and trustworthy AI with urban, environmental, and socioeconomic research, with the goal of advancing scientific understanding and informing planning and policy in support of human well-being.

• Environmental Hazards & Health: human exposure to and health impacts of heat, air pollution, wildfire, flooding, and compound hazards (SCS, 2025).

• Urban & Socioeconomic Conditions: spatial disparities in urban perception (Cities, 2025), poverty and wealth, urban renewal, and access to healthcare and public services.

• Trustworthy Foundation Models for Spatial Research: LLM alignment for spatial and aesthetical understanding (ACL, 2025), geospatial applications and interpretability.

Previously, I received my M.Arch. from Tsinghua University in 2025 and B.Eng. from Tongji University with the highest distinction in 2023. I also worked as a researcher intern at Tsinghua FIB-Lab (Department of Electronic Engineering), planning and architectural intern at THUDPI and THAD, contributing to two built projects, and equity research intern at Kaiyuan Securities Research Institute.

I am so lucky to have learned from and worked with many wonderful people! [🏅My collaborators & mentors].

News

• [2026.07] 🎉 My first-authored paper has been accepted by Frontiers of Architectural Research!
• [2026.04] 🥳 I received the Autodesk Graduate Student Fellowship ($15,000).
• [2026.03] 😊 I presented my research on compound heat and air pollution hazards and organized the session "Exploring Spatial, Temporal, and Social Dimensions of Multiple Climatic Hazards" at AAG 2026 in San Francisco.
• [2025.07] Our research on human perception disparity between urban and suburban areas has been accepted by Cities (SSCI, IF=6.6)!
• [2025.05] My first-authored paper Defining and Evaluating Visual Language Models' Basic Spatial Abilities: A Perspective from Psychometrics (DOI) has been accepted by ACL Main (CCF-A)!
• [2025.05] My first-authored paper on the spatiotemporal impacts of purpose-specific human mobility on air pollution (DOI) has been published by Sustainable Cities and Society (SCI, IF=12.0)!
• [2025.02] I got a PhD offer from the University of Cambridge.
• [2024.11] I received the Comprehensive Excellence Award of Tsinghua.
• [2024.09] I joined the FIB-LAB at Tsinghua EE as a research assistant.
• [2024.07] I participated in cultural exchange events in Italy as an "Interdisciplinary Design Innovation Scholar" of Tsinghua CIDIH.
• [2023.07] I graduated from Tongji with the highest distinction (top 1%).

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Selected Work

Full-text PDFs of all publications are available for download [here].
†Equal Contribution, *Corresponding Author

Misc

• I love the 90s Alternative Rock, Britpop, Citypop, and Classicals (especially in the Impressionism Era), and recently I have been especially into dreampop and shoegaze. My favorite contemporary artists include: Blur, Big Thief, Radiohead, 万能青年旅店, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, My Bloody Valentine, My Little Airport, Cheer Chen, Coldplay… So hard to name them all! Here are my collections on RateYourMusic or Douban!
• I watch about 200+ movies each year. Movies let us live three times more lives. We can talk on Letterboxd or Douban! My favorite directors are Quentin Tarantino, Woody Allen, David Fincher, Sofia Coppola… My life movie is “The Lord of The Rings”, “Yi Yi” by Edward Yang, and “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”. My favorite TV by now is “ロングバケーション”(Long Vacation).
• Unfortunately I don’t have time to read as many books each year, but I’d love to get any recommendations on Goodreads or Douban!
• I enjoy “city walking” and photography. You can find my photos in my blogs and on 500px.
• I am so addicted to tennis. I was a member of the Tsinghua School of Architecture Tennis Team. I’ve been learning piano since 22 (I can play Chopin’s Waltz in A Minor now! Hope I can play Debussy’s La Fille aux Cheveux de Lin and Liszt’s Liebesträume one day!). I also play guitar and have long hoped to start a band, though it still hasn’t happened yet.🎾🎹🎸
• I am a “No spicy, no joy” person, and my “spiritual hometown” is Sichuan.😈
• My nickname is ruarua or rua.😁

Contact

I am always excited to meet fellow researchers with shared interests!
Please feel free to contact me via Email or WeChat.

• Email: wenruixu(at)outlook(dot)com
• WeChat: ruaruaxu

Guestbook

© Wenrui Xu. Last updated: Jun 2026. Powered by Jekyll Minimal Light theme.