UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Susan Brantley, distinguished professor of geosciences and director of the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute at Penn State, will receive the European Association of Geochemistry’s 2018 Urey Award.
The annual award recognizes scientists who have made outstanding contributions advancing geochemistry over a career. Named after Harold Clayton Urey, a Nobel Prize-winning physical chemist, it is the top prize given by the society.
Brantley will receive the award in August at the V.M. Goldschmidt Conference in Boston.
Brantley’s research focuses on the interaction of water and rocks. She investigates chemical, biological and physical processes involving the circulation of water in shallow geological settings.
She is a leader in critical-zone science, the emerging study of the chemical and geological processes that shape and transform the thin layer from the deepest groundwater to the tallest vegetation and in the study of water-quality issues related to shale gas development in Pennsylvania.
Brantley’s research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and NASA. She is the lead principal investigator of the Susquehanna Shale Hills Critical Zone Observatory, which is located near the University’s Stone Valley Recreation Area and is part of the NSF-supported Critical Zone Observatory network.