Brandy Toner is a Professor in the Department of Soil, Water, and Climate at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Her scientific discipline is low-temperature and aqueous geochemistry. There are many types of geochemists and Brandy’s research focuses on the chemical form and mobility of metals in the environment. She specializes in solid-state chemistry and synchrotron analysis of complex environmental samples. You can learn about how geoscientists use synchrotron tools for their research here. This work is important because metals are both necessary for life (like iron) and have the potential to be toxic (like arsenic or mercury).
Here are a couple of recent examples of her collaborative work on mercury in the environment with links to the open access publication:
Kolka et al. (2024). "Review of the Influence of Climate Change on the Hydrologic Cycling and Gaseous Fluxes of Mercury in Boreal Peatlands: Implications for Restoration" doi:10.3390/w16081154
Pierce et al. (2022). "Role of Ester Sulfate and Organic Disulfide in Mercury Methylation in Peatland Soils" doi:10.1021/acs.est.1c04662
Brandy is a first generation college student and currently the only woman Professor in her department, but hopefully, that will change soon! As a kid, Brandy wanted to be an astronaut but motion sickness was a serious problem and the centrifuge was not an option. Instead of space exploration, some of her research takes her on expeditions deep underground or deep underwater with research objectives relevant to NASA's current missions to explore ocean worlds.
