Barbara Sherwood Lollar

Barbara Sherwood Lollar, CC FRSC FRS (born February 19, 1963^[1]) is a Canadian geologist and academic known for her research into billion-year-old water.^[2] She is currently a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto.^[3] In 2007, she was made a Canada Research Chair in Isotope Geochemistry of the Earth and the Environment. It was renewed in 2014.^[4]

Barbara Sherwood Lollar CC FRSC FRS
Born	Barbara Sherwood (1963-02-19) February 19, 1963 (age 62) Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Alma mater	Harvard University University of Waterloo
Known for	Stable isotopic analysis of ancient waters
Awards	ENI award, Nemmers Prize in Earth Science
Scientific career
Fields	Stable isotope geochemistry, Hydrogeology
Institutions	University of Toronto
Thesis	Origins and implications of methane in the crystalline environment: The Canadian and Fennoscandian shields (1990)
Website	www.es.utoronto.ca/people/faculty/sherwood-lollar-barbara

Early life and education

Sherwood Lollar was born in Kingston, Ontario,^[5] the daughter of John M Sherwood and Joan Sherwood, historians and academic at Queen's University, Kingston,^[1][6] she joined the University of Toronto in 1992 after receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geological Sciences from Harvard University, a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from University of Waterloo in 1990,^[7] and a postdoctoral fellow at University of Cambridge.

Career

She has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers in geochemistry, Earth and planetary sciences and supervised over 100 students, postdoctoral fellows and research associates around the world.^[8]

She has frequently collaborated with Tullis Onstott and Lisa Pratt on large multi-national research projects.^[9]

Honours

In 2004, she was made a Fellow of Royal Society of Canada. In 2010, she was made a Senior Fellow of Massey College. In 2012, she was awarded the ENI award. In 2015, she was made a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. In 2016, she was awarded the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council's John C. Polanyi Award.^[10] In 2016, she was invested as a Companion of the Order of Canada "for her revolutionary contributions to geochemistry, notably in the development of innovative mechanisms for groundwater remediation, and for her discovery of ancient fluids that hold implications for life on other planets".^[11] Also in 2016, she was awarded the Bancroft Award by the Royal Society of Canada.^[12] She received the Logan Medal in 2018.

She was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 2019.^[13] In 2021, she was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering for contributions to understanding of the evolution of Earth's groundwater and atmosphere.^{[citation needed]}

On 6 May 2019, Lollar received the Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.^[6][14]

She received the 2024 Nemmers Prize in Earth science for her "groundbreaking discoveries across several fields of Earth and environmental sciences, illuminating fundamental aspects of Earth's life-sustaining water and carbon cycles".^[15]