Segment 1 – Earth Observation for Sustainability

Development of a Skilful Seasonal Rice Forecasting System To Safeguard Global Food Security

Dr. He Xiaogang

National University of Singapore, Centre for Environmental Resilience in Civil and Environmental Engineering (NUS CER)

Biography

Dr He Xiaogang is an Assistant Professor and a Deputy Director of Centre for Environmental Resilience in Civil and Environmental Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Dr He is a Princeton-trained Ph.D. hydrologist with experience in economics, machine learning, and environmental policy. His research interests focus on the fundamental understanding of how climate change, variability, and human interventions affect drought and flood risk across scales. He is also interested in implementing an integrative framework (e.g., Earth System Models, Integrated Assessment Models, remote sensing, artificial intelligence, multi-benefit spatial optimization, nexus approaches) to reduce global change impacts on the interlinked water-food-energy-carbon sectors. His research has gained substantial media attention, including from the New York Times, Associated Press, abc News, Inside Climate News, Bloomberg, USA Today, The Straits Times, KQED, The Hill, Grist, EurekAlert!, Science Daily, Stanford News, Princeton News, NUS News.

Dr He was honoured with the 2020 Editors’ Citation for Excellence Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU), where he serves as Associate Editor for Geophysical Research Letters. He has twice received the Young Scientist Outstanding Paper Award (2019, 2021) from the International Association of Chinese Youth in Water Sciences. In 2023, Dr He earned the Inaugural Outstanding Early Career Award from NUS’s College of Design and Engineering.