Gene-Hua Crystal Ng

Background & Expertise

G.-H. Crystal Ng is an associate professor in the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities. She completed her bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics at Harvard University and her PhD degree in environmental engineering at MIT. Her research focuses on integrated hydrological modeling to understand how shallow groundwater systems respond to climate change, land-use/cover change and contamination. She is interested in how different aspects affecting the hydrologic cycle – including the atmosphere, plants, soil, microbial activity, geochemistry, and people – interact with each other. More recently, Ng has also been conducting community-engaged research, through which she as a settler western scientist strives to demonstrate the need for partnerships with Indigenous communities, inclusion of other knowledge systems, and work towards environmental justice. Her projects include interdisciplinary and collaborative work with Ojibwe Tribal nations in the Upper Great Lakes region to protect Manoomin/Psiη/natural wild rice, as well as with Kichwa communities in the Ecuadorian Andes to anticipate the impacts of rapid glacier retreat in the tropics.