Dr. Bridget Scanlon^[1] is an Irish and American hydrogeologist known for her work on groundwater depletion and groundwater recharging, and of the effects of climate change and land usage patterns on groundwater.^[2] She is a senior research scientist in the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin, where she is head of the Sustainable Water Resources Program.^[3] Her research has included the use of GRACE satellite data to compare drought conditions in Texas and California.^[4]

Dr. Scanlon is originally from County Kerry in Ireland.^[5] She earned a bachelor's degree in geology at Trinity College Dublin in 1980,^[6] and worked with the Geological Survey of Ireland before moving to the US for graduate study.^[5] She earned a master's degree at the University of Alabama in 1983,^[6] with a master's thesis based on her field work in the basin of the River Maine in Ireland,^[5] and completed a Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky in 1985,^[6] studying the karst landscape of the inner Bluegrass region of Kentucky.^[5] After briefly working at a consulting firm, she joined the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas at Austin in 1987. Since 2004 she has also held an adjunct faculty position at the University of Nebraska.^[6]