长期从事环境空间信息学研究，提出并建立了激光视觉三维感知和智能计算理论与方法体系。研发了弱/稀疏信号目标三维结构重建、多源异质空间信息融合和可解释人工智能驱动的环境空间目标解译等新技术，实现了城市与自然环境中体散射目标的三维精细表征、解译与建模，以及覆盖其余惯常动静态目标的结构提取、状态预测和属性估计。其成果被国内外广泛采用，并在自然生态系统和城市建成环境区域取得规模化工程应用实效。曾在德国和中国香港国际知名高校及科研机构任教授、博导，高级研究科学家和课题组长。在国内外权威学术杂志和会议发表文章近200篇，获得国际和国家级科研奖励8项，担任5家领域内权威杂志编委或副主编，5个国家的自然基金委项目评审专家，75家遥感、空间人工智能和计算机视觉领域权威杂志的审稿人。入选国家重大人才计划创新项目和中国科学院A类杰出引进人才项目。自2022年入选斯坦福全球前2%科学家，IEEE Senior Member。
摄影测量与遥感；时空智能感知与计算；环境信息学与生态应用
期刊编辑
1.2022年-至今 《测绘学报（英文版）》编委
2.2023年-至今 Geospatial Information Science副主编、编委
3.2024年-至今 Photogrammetric Record 编委
4.2018年-至今 Remote Sensing (客座)编委
5.2026年-至今 International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation编委
学术团体
1.2019年-至今 国际数字地球学会激光雷达专业委员会委员
2.2016年-2022年 国际摄影测量与遥感学会（ISPRS） 遥感数据融合工作组共同主席
3.2023年-至今 国际制图学会(ICA) 地理空间数据分析学委员会共同主席
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2. He, Z., Yao, W., Shao, J., & Wang, P. (2024). UB-FineNet: Urban building fine-grained classification network for open-access satellite images. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 217, 76-90.
3. Wang, P., & Yao, W. (2022). A new weakly supervised approach for ALS point cloud semantic segmentation. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 188, 237-254.
4.Polewski, P., Yao, W., Cao, L., & Gao, S. (2019). Marker-free coregistration of UAV and backpack LiDAR point clouds in forested areas. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 147, 307-318.
5. Yao, W., Krzystek, P., & Heurich, M. (2012). Tree species classification and estimation of stem volume and DBH based on single tree extraction by exploiting airborne full-waveform LiDAR data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 123, 368-380.
6. Wang, P., Yao, W., Shao, J., & He, Z. (2025). Test-time adaptation for geospatial point cloud semantic segmentation with distinct domain shifts. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 229, 422-435.
7. Fang, L., Li, T., Lin, Y., Zhou, S., & Yao, W. (2025). A coupled optical–radiometric modeling approach to removing reflection noise in TLS data of urban areas. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 220, 217-231.
8. Jia, S., & Yao, W. (2024). Self-supervised multi-task learning framework for safety and health-oriented road environment surveillance based on connected vehicle visual perception. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 128, 103753.
9. Polewski, P., Shelton, J., Yao, W., & Heurich, M. (2021). Instance segmentation of fallen trees in aerial color infrared imagery using active multi-contour evolution with fully convolutional network-based intensity priors. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 178, 297-313.
10. Wang, P., Yao, W., & Shao, J. (2023). One class one click: Quasi scene-level weakly supervised point cloud semantic segmentation with active learning. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 204, 89-104.
11. Jia, S., & Yao, W. (2023). Joint learning of frequency and spatial domains for dense image prediction. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 195, 14-28.
12. Polewski, P., & Yao, W. (2019). Scale invariant line-based co-registration of multimodal aerial data using L1 minimization of spatial and angular deviations. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 152, 79-93.
13. Yao, W., & Stilla, U. (2010). Mutual enhancement of weak laser pulses for point cloud enrichment based on full-waveform analysis. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 48(9), 3571-3579.
14. Polewski, P., Yao, W., Heurich, M., Krzystek, P., & Stilla, U. (2018). Learning a constrained conditional random field for enhanced segmentation of fallen trees in ALS point clouds. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 140, 33-44.
15. Polewski, P., Yao, W., Heurich, M., Krzystek, P., & Stilla, U. (2017). A voting-based statistical cylinder detection framework applied to fallen tree mapping in terrestrial laser scanning point clouds. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 129, 118-130.
16. Huang, R., Xu, Y., Yao, W., Hoegner, L., & Stilla, U. (2021). Robust global registration of point clouds by closed-form solution in the frequency domain. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 171, 310-329.
17. Huang, R., Xu, Y., Hong, D., Yao, W., Ghamisi, P., & Stilla, U. (2020). Deep point embedding for urban classification using ALS point clouds: A new perspective from local to global. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 163, 62-81.
18. Polewski, P., Yao, W., Heurich, M., Krzystek, P., & Stilla, U. (2015). Detection of fallen trees in ALS point clouds using a Normalized Cut approach trained by simulation. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 105, 252-271.
19. Xu, Y., Boerner, R., Yao, W., Hoegner, L., & Stilla, U. (2019). Pairwise coarse registration of point clouds in urban scenes using voxel-based 4-planes congruent sets. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 151, 106-123.
20. Yao, W., Hinz, S., & Stilla, U. (2011). Extraction and motion estimation of vehicles in single-pass airborne LiDAR data towards urban traffic analysis. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 66(3), 260-271.
