Dr. Di Zhu Recognized at College and University Award Events

In early May 2026, Professor Di Zhu attended various award events held at both the college and university levels, where he was officially recognized as a recipient of the McKnight Land-Grant Professorship for 2026–2028.

As part of the university-level celebration, Dr. Zhu joined fellow McKnight awardees and University of Minnesota leaders, and took photos with Dr. Gretchen Ritter, the Executive Vice President and Provost of UMN. The events provided a meaningful opportunity to celebrate faculty achievements across the university and mark an important milestone for Dr. Zhu and the GeoDI Lab.

The McKnight Land-Grant Professorship is a University of Minnesota recognition that supports promising assistant professors and their continued scholarly development. This recognition highlights Di's research contributions in geospatial data intelligence, GeoAI, spatial networks, human mobility, and urban social sensing.