Susan was born and brought up in North East England but has lived for the last 24 years in Aberdeen in North-East Scotland. After obtaining her Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the University of Exeter and a Doctoral degree from the University of Cambridge she was employed to work as a geologist in the oil and gas industry. As a senior geologist for the BP company her responsibilities included exploring for new oil and gas fields, developing existing fields, working offshore on oil rigs in the North Sea, and geological field studies in isolated areas on land. She has published papers in a number of academic journals.

Over the past decade climate change has been a particular area of interest and study for her and in 2008 she left BP to take up an appointment as a senior geologist in the UK Government Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). When she is not on board expedition cruise ships she is employed in their offices in Aberdeen. Travelling to remote areas which offer spectacular scenery has always been her hobby and she has spent time in Greenland and the Russian arctic, Chile, USA, New Zealand, and Europe as well as in Antarctica. Susan made her first ship-based expedition in 2002 and since then she has completed 3 seasons in the Antarctic and 4 in the Arctic. She really enjoys introducing her chosen subject to non-geologists and regularly gives talks to schools and other organisations on geology and climate change topics. She is a Chartered Geologist and a Fellow of the Geological Society of London, where she served for 3 years on the Fellowship and Validation Committee.