Hubbard was appointed a research scientist at the
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She was made Division Director of the Earth Sciences Division at Berkeley Lab in 2013 and Associate Lab Director of the Earth & Environmental Sciences Area in 2015. In her leadership role as an associate director of Berkeley lab, Hubbard was committed to bolstering efforts to increase diversity and foster inclusion and respect for women and members of underrepresented minorities in the Earth and Environmental Sciences. Throughout her career, she has actively sought mentorship roles of young scientists. Her research advanced the use of geophysics for subsurface characterization, using integrated datasets to understand the environment. In particular, Hubbard attempted to quantify the dynamics of terrestrial systems. She specializes in
hydrogeophysics, in particular making measurements of hydraulic conductivity, lithology and moisture movement. She has extended and advanced concepts used by the petroleum industry to better understand shallow environmental systems. Hubbard has served as Head of the Berkeley Laboratory Environmental Remediation and Water Resources Program. Hubbard was recently involved with monitoring watershed systems, imaging of
permafrost and agricultural systems and monitoring of biogeochemical processes using surface geophysical data. To characterize the permafrost, Hubbard travelled around the Arctic using a
ground-penetrating radar device pulled on skis. Hubbard visited the same places throughout the year to understand seasonal changes to permafrost, and attempt to understand how climate change will influence its future.
Awards and honours • 2009
Near-surface geophysics Community Frank Frischknecht Leadership Award • 2010
Geological Society of America Birdsall Dreiss Distinguished Lecturer • 2014
University of California Distinguished Alumni • 2016 Hal Mooney Award for Near Surface Geophysics, Society of Exploration Geophysicists • 2017 Elected Fellow of the
American Geophysical Union • 2019 Elected Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences • 2019
Alameda County Women's Hall of Fame • 2020 Elected Fellow of the
National Academy of Engineering • 2022 Society of Exploration Geophysicists Near Surface Global Lecturer award
Selected publications • • • Binley, A., Hubbard, S. S., Huisman, J. A., Revil, A., Robinson, D. A., Singha, K., and Slater, L. D. (2015), The emergence of hydrogeophysics for improved understanding of subsurface processes over multiple scales,
Water Resour. Res., 51, 3837– 3866, doi:10.1002/2015WR017016. • • Hubbard, S. S., Chen, J., Peterson, J., Majer, E. L., Williams, K. H., Swift, D. J., Mailloux, B., and Rubin, Y. (2001), Hydrogeological characterization of the south oyster bacterial transport site using geophysical data,
Water Resour. Res., 37( 10), 2431– 2456, doi:10.1029/2001WR000279. == Personal life ==