Dr. Wu is a principal environmental system analyst at Argonne National Laboratory and the Principal Investigator of a multi-year water analysis project supported by the U.S. Department of Energy. Her research interests in are water use, water quality, water resource availability, and wastewater management as related to the development of conventional and renewable energy. Wu is the principal author of a spatially explicit online model, WATER (Water Analysis Tool for Energy Resources), which develops water footprint of biofuels including conventional, cellulosic, and algal feedstock and various biochemical and thermochemical conversion technologies and assesses water availability under historical and projected biomass production in the United States with geospatial resolution, to help support decision making. Dr. Wu also heads a project developing watershed models for the Mississippi River basin and its tributaries. The work examines the impact of land use, integrated landscape design, biomass production, climate, and conservation practices on water quality at varying scales, and estimate value proposition. May’s another area of expertise is in life cycle assessment for biofuels.
Dr. Wu is a member of Modeling Working Group in Hypoxia Task Force, a member of GBEP AG6 Bioenergy and Water Working Group, serves as technical advisor to Current Research, review panels for U.S. and international agencies, and chaired Future Risk Technical Committee at AWRA. May has a diverse background that encompasses the areas of biofouling control, wastewater treatment, online monitoring, microbial-induced corrosion, fermentation, and membrane separation. She has a combined 15 years of experiences in process engineering R&D and 15 years of environmental sustainability analysis. Dr. Wu holds several U.S. patents, 60+ publications, and a dual Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering and Environmental Toxicology from Michigan State University.