Sarah Andrews is an American geologist and author of twelve science-based mystery novels and several short stories. Many of the novels featuring forensic geologist Em Hansen take place in the Rocky Mountains region of the United States. In 2005, Sarah was awarded an Artists and Writers grant by the National Science Foundation and deployed through McMurdo Station, Antarctica to remote field camps to research an eleventh novel featuring fictional glaciologist Valena Walker. Sarah has won numerous other awards for her writings, including the American Association of Petroleum Geologists Journalism Award. Sarah Andrews grew up on the East Coast of the United States. Her father was an artist and art teacher and her mother, a teacher of English and comparative religions. Since childhood, she had a passion for exploring the great outdoors, including sailing with her father and wandering solo through the woods and fields during the family's long summers in rural Maine. She left New England to attend college, earning a BA in geology from Colorado College. After college, she stayed in Colorado, working first as a plumber's apprentice on a construction site south of Colorado Springs.