Susan E. Trumbore is an earth systems scientist focusing on the

carbon cycle The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and Earth's atmosphere, atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as ...

and its effects on climate. She is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry and a Professor of Earth System Science at

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

. She is a fellow of the

American Geophysical Union The American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization of Earth, atmospheric, ocean, hydrologic, space, and planetary scientists and enthusiasts that according to their website includes 130,000 people (not members). AGU's act ...

and the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, a

Member of the National Academy of Sciences Membership of the National Academy of Sciences is an award granted to scientists that the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of the United States judges to have made “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research”. Membership i ...

and recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Medal.

Education

Trumbore earned her bachelor of science in geology at the

University of Delaware The University of Delaware (colloquially UD or Delaware) is a public land-grant research university located in Newark, Delaware. UD is the largest university in Delaware. It offers three associate's programs, 148 bachelor's programs, 121 mas ...

in 1981 and doctoral degree in geochemistry from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

in 1989.

Career and research

She held

postdoctoral A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to p ...

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

ships with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) is a federal research facility in Livermore, California, United States. The lab was originally established as the University of California Radiation Laboratory, Livermore Branch in 1952 in response ...

, and joined the faculty at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) in 1991. She is currently a Professor of Earth System Science at UCI, co-director the W.M. Keck Carbon Cycle Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, and director of the UCI branch of the Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics. She has also been a director at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry since 2009. Trumbore is a member of the speaker team for the Collaborative Research Center 'AquaDiva' and a member of the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research 'iDiv' She is a co-coordinator of the joint Brazilian/German 'ATTO' project. Other projects include 14Constraint, funded by an advanced grant from the

European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...

and the Tanguro Flux Project in collaboration with IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) and the Woods Hole Research Centre. Her former doctoral students include Mariah Carbone.

Recognition and awards

Trumbore was elected as a

of the

and the

in 2005. She was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2010. Trumbore was recognized with the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2018 for "her pioneering use of radiocarbon measurements in forests and soils to assess the flow of carbon between the biosphere and atmosphere, with implications for the understanding of future

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

." In 2020 she received the

Balzan Prize The International Balzan Prize Foundation awards four annual monetary prizes to people or organizations who have made outstanding achievements in the fields of humanities, natural sciences, culture, as well as for endeavours for peace and the br ...

for Earth System Dynamics. In 2015 she became a member of the

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Trumbore, Susan 1959 births Biogeochemists University of California, Irvine faculty Living people University of Delaware alumni Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellows of the American Geophysical Union Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences American women earth scientists Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina 21st-century American women Max Planck Institute directors