Professor Wu’s research has centred on the prevention, control, and utilisation of mine water and on the geological basis of mine water hazards. His work has contributed to prediction and forecasting methods and prevention-and-control technologies for water inrush from mine roofs and floors, as well as an integrated approach linking mine water prevention, resource utilisation, and ecological protection. He has also developed three-dimensional visualisation and analysis systems for mine flooding and technologies for advance water detection, drainage, disaster monitoring, early warning, and emergency response. As head of an expert group involved in investigations of exceptionally serious mine flooding accidents, he participated in the on-site rescue and investigation of six major disasters. His technologies have been applied in more than one hundred severely water-endangered mines operated by over thirty coal enterprise groups. These achievements have been recognised by three National Science and Technology Progress Awards (Second Prize) and more than ten provincial and ministerial first prizes. He has published more than 300 scientific papers and over ten monographs, served as chief editor of the national standard Regulations for Coal Mine Water Prevention and Control and its companion handbook, and holds more than seventy authorised invention patents. He has supervised more than forty doctoral and postdoctoral researchers. Through sustained research, participation in national mine-safety programmes, and the application of hydrogeological science to mining practice, Professor Wu has contributed to the development of mine water science, safe and environmentally responsible coal mining, and mining-environment protection in China.