Susan Brantley

Susan L. Brantley is Professor Emerita of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, where she was also Director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute from 2003 to 2022. As a geochemist, Susan L. Brantley works to understand what controls the chemistry of natural waters, and how rocks interact with the water through which they flow as they infiltrate the earth's crust. His recent work has focused on data acquisition and numerical modeling of the transformation of rocks into soil, as well as the environmental consequences of the use of hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") for the extraction of natural gas and oil. As part of her study of the effects of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania, she also collaborated with citizens and watershed collectives to understand community concerns. She has been a driving force at the international level for the development of the Critical Zone Initiative.

Susan L. Brantley has published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals and mentored 40 master's and doctoral students during her career at Penn State. She was appointed to the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board by President Barack Obama in 2012. In this position, which she held until 2021, she advised the United States on the development of solutions for nuclear waste disposal. In 2012, she was elected a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and, in 2022, a foreign member of the French Academy of Sciences. In 2025, she was elected a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

*Last updated 07/23/2025