Marcia Bjornerud is Professor of Geosciences and Environmental Studies at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Bjornerud¹s research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building, combining field-based studies of bedrock with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She has worked in high arctic Norway (Svalbard) and Canada (Ellesmere Island), as well as mainland Norway, Italy, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region.
Bjornerud is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and was a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the Universities of Oslo (Norway) and Otago (New Zealand). She has worked with the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission to block mining projects that threatened the waters of Lake Superior.
A contributing writer to The New Yorker, Wired, the Wall Street Journal and the LA Times, she is also the author of several books for popular audiences: Reading the Rocks, Geopedia, Timefulness which was longlisted for the PEN/E.O.Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing and Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks, which received the 2025 Burroughs Medal for Natural History writing.
She is a cross-country skier, wild food forager, and mother of three grown sons.
