Wu is among55second-year and third-year students selected from 406 candidates nominated by 192colleges and universities nationwide. Scholars are recognized for leadership, public service, and commitment to issues related to the environment or to Native American nations. Each scholar will be awarded as much as $7,000.
A Taiwanese-American undergraduate scientist from Woodbury, Minnesota, Wu is the founder and international director of Waterroots, a nonprofit environmental education project that uses climate storytelling to combat water insecurity in more than 20 countries. Wu is a researcher in Penn Engineering’s McBride Lab, where he works as a plant specialist for a project that promotes environmental stability and sustainable agriculture. He is the deputy director of research for the nonprofit Climate Cardinals, a member of Penn’s Student Advisory Group for the Environment, and the North America representative for the Tunza Eco-Generation Ambassador program. Wu is a Clinton Global Initiative Scholar, a Duke Interfaith Climate Fellow, an IEEE Bio-X Scholar, a 2023 Millennium Fellow, and a 2024 UN ECOSOC Youth Delegate. In addition, he is a resident advisor in Penn’s Stouffer College House, as well as a Penn Engineering and a VIPER student ambassador.
Wu is the 10th student from Penn to be named a Udall Scholar since Congress established the foundation in 1992 to honor Morris and Stewart Udall for their impact on the nation’s environment, public lands, and natural resources and for their support of the rights and self-governance of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Griffin Pitt, right, works with two other student researchers to test the conductivity, total dissolved solids, salinity, and temperature of water below a sand dam in Kenya.
Griffin Pitt’s upbringing made her passionate about water access and pollution, and Penn has given her the opportunity to explore these issues back home in North Carolina and abroad.
Helping robots work together to explore the Moon and Mars
Penn Engineers, NASA, and five other universities tested robotic systems designed to help unmanned explorers cooperate in the dunes of White Sands, New Mexico, paving the way for Moon and Mars exploration.
From framework to actions: Provost John L. Jackson Jr. talks Penn Forward
In a Q&A, Provost John L. Jackson Jr. explains the relationship between the strategic framework In Principle and Practice and Penn Forward—a new University-wide process and action plan that will advance Penn forward for the next decade and beyond.
