Brantley: Susan Brantley

Susan Brantley joined the Penn State Geoscience Faculty in 1986. Brantley’s research focused on low-temperature fluid-mineral interactions, biological reactions in water-rich soils, and the geochemical processes transforming rock into soil. From these natural weathering processes, she established key mechanisms and rates to predict geological stability, landscape evolution, and contaminant movement through soil and rocks. Her approaches addressed dissolution, colloidal chemistry, and transport processes from the particle scale to rock structures and landscapes. This work has been applied to CO₂ storage, nuclear waste storage, and industrial contamination from manufacturing and mining. Brantley co-edited the book "Kinetics of Water-Rock Interactions," which covers much of the theoretical and experimental methods used to understand complex water-rock interactions.

Brantley developed these multiple-scale models through laboratory-scale experiments and using critical zone observatories. She was among the first to advocate using critical zones as field sites for transport data in geoscience and was an early participant in the Critical Zone Observatory, a network of field stations studying the zone from the vegetation canopy to the bedrock. This zone is critical because it is where freshwater flows, soil forms, and life flourishes. Brantley was President of the Geochemical Society, a member of the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board, and was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences in 2012. Named an Evan Pugh Professor in 2022, these and many other honors highlight her generational leadership in water resource management and environmental impact assessment.