Spencer Wood is a Principal Research Scientist and Data Science Fellow. He is also Affiliate Assistant Professor in the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Senior Fellow with the Natural Capital Project at Stanford University, a UW Nature & Health Steering Committee member, Faculty Affiliate in the UW Center for Computational Demography and Ecology, and Director of the UW Outdoor R&D Lab.

Spencer is an interdisciplinary scientist with broad interests and experience in ecology, sustainability, economics, and computer science. His research and publications have addressed a variety of topics including outdoor recreation, public land management, fire ecology, archaeology, and sustainable development. Since 2020, Web of Science has named Spencer a highly cited researcher, placing him in the top 1% of all multidisciplinary scientists globally.

Spencer uses data, technology, and quantitative methods to evaluate and improve policy and management decisions. His work is driven by real-world applications and co-developed through partnerships with non-profits, governments, and corporations who put science into practice. At eScience, Spencer brings this experience to the mentoring of faculty and students in the Data Science & AI Accelerator and the Data Science for Social Good programs.

Before joining the University of Washington, Spencer received his PhD from the University of British Columbia and his postdoctoral training at Stanford University.

Expertise:

• Ecology, conservation, and sustainability
• Environmental management and policy
• Economics
• Network models
• Machine learning
• Natural language processing
• Data storage and databases
• Languages: Python, R, bash