Donald Ira Siegel (born October 24, 1947[1]) is the emeritus Laura J. and L. Douglas Meredith Professor in the department of Earth Science at Syracuse University.
[4] Siegel began his career at Amerada Hess Corporation in 1971 as an exploration geologist, conducting geological studies to locate oil and gas in the Rocky Mountains and southwestern United States.
[10] After joining the faculty at Syracuse, Siegel studied of how groundwater and deep saline waters passed through the Marcellus Shale millions of years ago to the present.
[10][11] Siegel also investigated the use of similar forensic techniques to characterize fluids generated by hydraulic fracking and other unconventional gas and oil extraction in western China, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York State.
[20][21] After media reports that Siegel did not disclose that Chesapeake Energy, a hydrocarbon exploration company, had paid him to analyze the data, the journal Environmental Science & Technology, which published the analysis, posted a correction.
[22][23] While fracking proponents praised the study, many environmental groups ethical violations and cited smaller sample size that had produced conflicting results.
[29] In 2012, Siegel was elected member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science for "his distinguished service and pioneering contributions on the hydrogeology and biogeochemistry of wetlands and contaminant transport".