Susan Lozier is Dean of the College of Sciences at Georgia Institute of Technology and the Betsy Middleton and John Clark Sutherland Chair. She received a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Purdue University, completed a master’s degree in chemical engineering and a Ph.D. in physical oceanography, both from the University of Washington. Following postdoctoral studies at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Lozier joined the faculty of Duke University in 1992. In 2019 she assumed the deanship at Georgia Tech, where she is also a professor in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences.
Susan is a physical oceanographer with an interest in large-scale ocean circulation. Overall, her research focuses on the ocean’s role in climate variability and climate change. She studies the meridional overturning circulation of the ocean and how that circulation impacts the transfer of heat and fresh water from one part of the ocean to another. Her research also focuses on understanding the physical controls on marine productivity. Lozier is the international lead for the Overturning in the Subpolar North Atlantic Program (OSNAP) observing system. OSNAP uses data from moored instruments, satellites, ocean gliders, and floats to provide estimates of the ocean’s velocity, temperature and salinity fields. The project is providing much-needed data to understand the role of ocean circulation in the present and future climate and will help improve climate models that are used in the assessments by the International Panel on Climate Change.
Susan was the recipient of an NSF Early Career Award in 1996, was awarded a Bass Chair for Excellence in Research and Teaching in 2000, received a Duke University Award for Excellence in Mentoring in 2007, was named an American Meteorological Society Fellow in 2008, a Distinguished Professor at Duke in 2012, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2015. She was named an American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fellow in 2014, received the AGU Ambassador Award in 2016 for leadership in the ocean sciences, and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020.
Susan served as the AGU President from 2021 to 2022. She served as president of The Oceanography Society from 2014 to 2016. Motivated by a commitment to diversity, she has contributed to the community through her mentoring efforts for students and early career scientists. She initiated and, for over a decade, led the Mentoring Physical Oceanography to Increase Retention (MPOWIR) program, which has served as a model for other mentoring efforts in earth and space science. In recognition of this work, she received the Outstanding Educator Award from the American Association of Women Geoscientists in 2010, and in 2017, was awarded the Joanne Simpson Mentorship Award from the American Meteorological Society for leadership in establishing a nationwide mentoring program for early-career female physical oceanographers and serving as a mentoring role model for the community.
