Suzanne Pierre is

 an ecosystems ecologist and biogeochemist focused on plant-microbe interactions,

founder and lead investigator in the Critical Ecology Lab,

National Geographic Explorer,

and writer exploring the ways ecology reflects, explains, and contains societal freedom and oppression.

Exploring the intersections of environmental change and human inequality through critical ecology​.

I am the lead investigator of the Critical Ecology Lab, a nonprofit, interdisciplinary research collaborative leading  conceptual and methodological shifts away from ahistoric and asocial approaches to studying the natural environment. Through a field-building merger of natural sciences (ecology, biogeochemistry, archaeology, etc),  critical environmental theory, decolonial studies, political ecology, Black feminism, ethnic studies, and more, the Critical Ecology Lab builds bridges between researchers in these disciplines to investigate the ways social and economic oppression have and continue to shape climate and environmental change.
I also write and speak about the intersection of these issues, which boil down to the question: how do human-derived environmental conditions and concepts shape unequal societies, or potentiate justice?

Research Scientist,
​California Academy of Sciences
At the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA, I hold the position of Research Scientist, Critical Ecology. I join other researchers at the Academy conducting fundamental research at the intersection of global change science and critical analysis of social power and inequality. As a full time research scientist, I design and fund my own research program, collaborate with others on the museum's strategic initiatives, and mentor undergraduate and graduate students.

Studying ecological change through a critical lens.

My research focuses on global environmental change. I am passionate about how climate, physiology, and plant-microbe interactions set the stage for elemental cycling on Earth. I use an interdisciplinary suite of tools from microbial ecology, stable isotope mass spectrometry,  and plant ecophysiology, and more, to address these questions.