Peng Luo
Incoming Assistant Professor (Aug 2026) · Postdoctoral Researcher
I will join the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in August 2026. I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the MIT Senseable City Lab, and I received my Ph.D. from the Chair of Cartography and Visual Analytics at the Technical University of Munich. My research focuses on Trustworthy GeoAI, with particular interests in spatial explicit modeling, geospatial explainable AI, uncertainty quantification for GeoAI models, and multi-agent GeoAI.
I am hiring! Two fully-funded Ph.D. positions for Fall 2027 — see openings →Research
Spatial Modeling
Spatial Explicit Modeling
Models that explicitly encode spatial heterogeneity, dependence, and interaction into prediction and association analysis.
Trustworthy AI
Trustworthy GeoAI & UQ
Model-agnostic frameworks for spatial uncertainty quantification, explainability, and visual analytics.
Generalization
Transferable & Scalable GeoAI
LLM-driven geospatial model discovery, graph-based community detection, and scalable urban analytics.
News
Apr 2026
Publication
Quantifying uncertainty in spatial prediction for nonstationary spatial processes published in Annals of the AAG. A framework for uncertainty quantification tailored to spatially nonstationary processes.
Mar 2026
Publication
Focal-feature regression kriging published in Geographical Analysis. A spatially adaptive kriging method that selects locally relevant features for improved spatial prediction.
Jan 2026
Publication
Toward Ethical Spatial Analysis published in Journal of Geovisualization and Spatial Analysis. Visual analytics approach to reveal endogenous bias in spatial models.
Jan 2026
Publication
Uncovering spatial process heterogeneity from graph-based deep spatial regression published in ISPRS JPRS. Graph neural networks for capturing spatially varying relationships.
Jan 2026
Position
Joined the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa as Adjunct Assistant Professor.
Dec 2025
Publication
Modeling shared micromobility as a label propagation process published in CEUS. Detecting overlapping communities in urban micromobility networks.
Oct 2025
Publication
GeoXCP published in IJGIS. Uncertainty quantification for spatial explanations in explainable AI.
Jul 2025
Publication
GeoConformal prediction published in Annals of the AAG. A model-agnostic framework for spatially calibrated prediction intervals.
Jul 2025
Publication
Measuring univariate effects in the interaction of geographical patterns published in IJGIS. Disentangling individual variable contributions in spatial interaction models.
Jun 2025
Media
GeoEvolve covered by 36Kr as "The AlphaEvolve of geography."
Mar 2025
Publication
Book chapter Spatial Stratified Modeling published in International Encyclopedia of Geography (Wiley-AAG).
Feb 2025
Publication
Modeling hydrous mineral distribution on Mars published in ISPRS JPRS. Spatial prediction with extremely sparse planetary data.
Feb 2025
Two papers ranked among the most read in IJGIS (No.1 and No.5 in 2025).
Aug 2024
Position
Joined MIT Senseable City Lab as Postdoc Research Fellow.
Jun 2024
Ph.D.
Successfully defended Ph.D. dissertation at the Chair of Cartography and Visual Analytics, Technical University of Munich. [News] [Dissertation]