Sherwood Lollar’s pioneering work establishing the principles for using isotopic tracers to identify, and most importantly quantify, microbial and chemical transformation of groundwater contaminants has had a global impact in the field of drinking water remediation. Deeper in the Earth’s crust, her work coupling investigations of the deep subsurface carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur cycles with noble gas isotopic tracers elucidates water-rock reactions producing hydrogen and methane rich environments in the terrestrial subsurface, contributing to a transformed understanding of global habitability, and the sustainability of subsurface microbial communities.

Recent awards include 2022 Election as International Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 2021 International Fellow of US National Academy of Engineering, Royal Canadian Geographic Society Massey Medal, 2020 Killam Prize for Natural Sciences, RSC Willet G. Miller Medal in Earth Sciences, 2019 NSERC Gerhard Herzberg Gold Medal, 2019 C.C. Patterson Medal for Environmental Geochemistry, 2018 Logan Medal, 2016 NSERC John Polanyi Award, 2016 Bancroft Award, 2014 International Helmholtz Fellowship, and 2012 Eni Award for Protection of the Environment.