Suzanne Pierre is

 a microbial ecologist and biogeochemist,

founder and lead investigator in the Critical Ecology Lab,

​and a writer asking how human ideologies shape the natural world.

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. 

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. 

​Thinker in Residence,
​California Academy of Sciences
I am honored to be awarded a 2021 Osher Fellowship from the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, CA. I join other "thinkers in residence" working in collaboration with the Academy’s scientists, educators, and science communicators to contribute my expertise and perspectives to environmental research initiatives at the Academy. During my residence, I will be developing theory and practice in the Critical Ecology Lab and working on a science book for general audiences.