Barbara Sherwood Lollar
For her “groundbreaking discoveries across several fields of Earth and environmental sciences, illuminating fundamental aspects of Earth’s life-sustaining water and carbon cycles.”
Barbara Sherwood Lollar received the Nemmers Prize in Earth sciences, honored for her “groundbreaking discoveries across several fields of Earth and environmental sciences, illuminating fundamental aspects of Earth’s life-sustaining water and carbon cycles.” She is the Dr. Norman Keevil Chair and University Professor of Ore Deposits Geology in the Department of Earth Sciences at University of Toronto.
Sherwood Lollar’s award-winning research on the intersection between the carbon cycle and water cycle includes investigation of water-rock reactions producing methane, hydrogen and noble gases in the continental subsurface, and of compound-specific stable isotopes of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur as an innovative means to monitor and improve remediation of groundwater contamination.
Her work has changed our understanding of the depth, volume and chemistry of the Earth’s subsurface hydrogeosphere. Her discoveries have also had important impact on understanding the geochemical basis of Earth’s microbial biosphere, with implications for planetary science and solar system exploration.
She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in geochemistry, Earth,and planetary sciences and supervised over 100 students, postdoctoral fellows and research associates around the world. She is co-director of Earth 4D: Subsurface Science and Exploration, an international and interdisciplinary research program funded by the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.
She is an International member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the American Geophyscial Union and the Royal Society of London, among others. She is the recipient of the Clare Patterson Prize in Environmental Geochemistry from the Geochemical Society, the 2012 Eni Prize in Protection of the Environment and most recently, selected as the 2023 American Geophysical Union Carl Sagan Lecturer.
The members of the 2024 Nemmers Prize Selection Committee were Yarrow Axford, Northwestern; Jeremy Bassis, University of Michigan; and Katherine Freeman, Penn State.