Dr. Susan L. Brantley is Evan Pugh University Professor and Hubert and Mary Barnes Professor of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, where she also served as Director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute until 2022. Dr. Brantley has published more than 300 scientific papers aimed at understanding what controls the chemistry of natural water and how water interacts with the rocks through which it flows. Her recent work has focused on environmental impacts related to the use of hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in natural gas and oil extraction.
She earned her PhD in Geological and Geophysical Sciences at Princeton University. She lives with her geologist husband in State College, where she watches from afar the scientific careers of her two geologist daughters.