Dr. Nicoleta Cristea is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the University of Washington (UW) and a Senior Data Science Fellow at the UW eScience Institute. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington. Her research leverages high-resolution remote sensing, physics-based numerical models, and machine learning to study freshwater systems and their responses to environmental change. She co-developed community data science programs such as GeoSMART and eScience hackweeks, and supports training and open-source research in geosciences. She actively collaborates with local communities, including Seattle City Light, the Nooksack Tribe, and the UW Climate Impacts Group, to ensure her research is grounded in the region’s needs and priorities.

Expertise:

• Hydrology
• Analysis of water datasets
• Remote sensing, spatial analysis
• Hydrological modeling
• Machine learning
• Python