Title: AI for Earth Observation: From Data Infrastructure to Environmental Intelligence
Abstract: This talk presents recent advances in AI for Earth Observation, following a path from data infrastructure to foundation models and environmental intelligence. I will discuss how AI-ready cyberinfrastructure can improve the discovery, integration, and use of large-scale geospatial data, and how Geospatial AI connects Earth observation, environmental science, and AI to support societally important applications such as Arctic permafrost monitoring and disaster resilience. The talk will also highlight opportunities and challenges in building trustworthy, scalable AI systems for near-real-time environmental monitoring and decision-making.
Bio: Dr. Wenwen Li is a Foundation Professor and Director of the Spatial Analysis Research Center (SPARC) in the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning at Arizona State University (ASU). She also leads the Cyberinfrastructure and Computational Intelligence (CICI) Lab. Dr. Li’s research interests include cyberinfrastructure, big data, geospatial artificial intelligence (GeoAI), and their applications in data- and computation-intensive environmental and social sciences. Her work has led to widely used cyberinfrastructure tools (e.g., PolarHub and PolarGlobe), and conceptual advances that support climate resilience, disaster response, humanitarian aid, and clean water access in underserved communities.
Dr. Li has served as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on projects totaling over $23 million in research funding, supported by federal, state, and philanthropic agencies such as NSF, NASA, USGS, NIH, DOD, ABOR, and Google.org. She is the recipient of the NSF CAREER Award and the NSF Mid-Career Advancement Award. Dr. Li is a Fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) and the University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS). Her contributions to data science and informatics have also been recognized by the AGU’s Greg Leptoukh Lecturer Award and the Geological Society of America’s M. Lee Allison Award for Outstanding Contributions to Geoinformatics and Data Science. Dr. Li was named a Distinguished Lecturer in the AGU College of Fellows Distinguished Lecture Series (2025–2026 and 2026-2027), received the AGU Open Science Recognition Prize (2025) and the NASA Group Achievement Award (2025) recognizing her contributions as part of the AI for Science Team and the team’s collective impact in “developing AI foundational models that enhance scientific analysis, facilitate breakthrough discoveries, and exemplify collaborative innovation, setting new standards for transparency and scientific rigor in AI development.”