Suzan van der Lee

Suzan van der Lee is Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor and Director of Computing in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern University.

Van der Lee applies data science to unravel connections between the Earth’s interior and observable phenomena related to surface deformation and plate tectonics, including earthquakes. She highlights critical aspects of these dynamics through 3D imaging of the Earth’s mantle beneath North and South America, Europe, and Africa, and integrating these seismic images with broader geophysical and geological knowledge. She has identified the dual role of an upper-mantle water cycle in sustaining plate tectonics and continues to test this hypothesis in different tectonic settings.

She earned her M.Sc. in Geophysics from the University of Utrecht and Ph.D. in Geological and Geophysical Sciences from Princeton University.