Grace Wu

Grace Wu is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She holds a Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley, an M.S. from the same program, an M.Phil. in Zoology from the University of Cambridge, and a B.A. in Biology from Pomona College. Prior to UCSB, she was a Smith Conservation Fellow at The Nature Conservancy and a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Davis’ John Muir Institute of the Environment.

Her research focuses on sustainable land use, climate change mitigation, and renewable energy planning. She employs spatial science to analyze trade-offs between low-carbon energy development and biodiversity conservation, co-founding the MapRE initiative and developing the RE Zoning GIS tool. Her work emphasizes low-impact pathways for energy systems, particularly in Southern Africa and the U.S., while collaborating with global initiatives like the FABLE consortium to model food, energy, and land-use dynamics.

Grace has been recognized as a Smith Conservation Fellow and UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research bridges policy, science, and technology, aiming to harmonize climate goals with conservation and social equity. She teaches courses such as ENV S 25 and ENV S 145 at UCSB and leads the Spatial Climate Solutions Lab.