Dr. Suzanne Pierre

Dr. Suzanne Pierre is soil microbial ecologist and biogeochemist, a writer, and transformer of social systems. She is the founder and the lead investigator of the Critical Ecology Lab, a nonprofit organization creating novel processes and spaces for communities of people with scientific and generational knowledge to destabilize oppressive systems and fight back against escalating social and planetary disaster. She received an interdisciplinary B.A. in Environmental Studies from New York University, a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Cornell University, and was a University of California President's Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley. Her technical expertise is in applying molecular and stable isotope approaches to characterizing the biophysical mechanisms controlling nutrient and carbon cycling in plant and microbial systems experiencing climate change. Pierre is a transdisciplinary scientist developing the new field of critical ecology, the study of basic ecological processes through the analytical lens of decoloniality and social liberation theory. Her goal is to explain the phenomena of global ecological change as responses to systems of global colonialism and capitalism. Pierre speaks and writes about the intersections identity, liberation, and ecology in publications such as MOLD, Loam, and a forthcoming nonfiction book. She also collaborates with artists and curators to convey these topics through art and exhibitions internationally. She is a 2022 recipient of the National Geographic Wayfinder Award and is a National Geographic Explorer.