Laura J. Crossey is an American hydrologist and geochemist and Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Crossey is part of UNM's Sustainable Water Resources Grand Challenge team, which studies water and climate in New Mexico and other arid regions. She has studied springs and groundwater in areas including the Western Desert of Egypt, Australia's Great Artesian Basin, Tibet, the Middle Rio Grande Basin and the Grand Canyon.
Early life and education Laura Jones Crossey grew up in Deerfield, Illinois. She attended Colorado College, earning her BA in geology in 1977. She completed a master's in science at Washington University in St. Louis in 1979, working on trace elements in basalts as part of the Terrestrial Basaltic Volcanism project with Larry Haskin. She earned her PhD degree in geology in 1985 at the University of Wyoming, working with Ronald C. Surdam. Crossey's dissertation addressed The Origin and Role of Water-soluble Organic Compounds in Clastic Diagenetic Systems.
Career Crossey joined the Earth and Planetary Sciences department at the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1985. She was the second woman to be hired by the department, the first woman to become tenured in the department, and the first female chair of the department (2013–2016). She has served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (1997–2000) at UNM and as Acting Associate Dean for Research at UNM (2017–2018). As Dean of Research, she helped to arrange a climate-controlled home for the paleontology collection, then housed in Northrop Hall, later the Natural History Science Center. As of 2021, Crossey was named a Distinguished Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of New Mexico. Crossey is active in science education and outreach at all levels and works to increase science participation by members of under-represented groups. Crossey has been involved with numerous scholarly and professional organizations, including the New Mexico Governor's committee to develop Science Standards, the Global Water Institute at Ohio State University, the state-wide New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation, and the international Association for Women Geoscientists.
Research
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