Marcia Bjornerud is Professor of Geosciences at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Her research focuses on the physics of earthquakes and mountain building, and she combines field-based studies of bedrock geology with quantitative models of rock mechanics. She has done research in high arctic Norway (Svalbard) and Canada (Ellesmere Island), as well as mainland Norway, Italy, New Zealand, and the Lake Superior region. A contributing writer to The New Yorker, Wired, the Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times, she is also the author of two book for popular audiences, Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of the Earth, and Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World.