Roberta L. Rudnick (born 1958)[2] is an American earth scientist and professor of geology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

She was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2010 and was awarded the Dana Medal by the Mineralogical Society of America.

[4] After graduating, Rudnick moved to Sul Ross State University for her master's degree, specialising in geology.

[4][7] Her master's thesis was titled the Petrography, Geochemistry and Tectonic Affinities of Meta-Igneous Rocks from the Precambrian Carrizo Mountain Group.

[10] Whilst she was a student she used the Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) to date ancient zircons.

[12] Rudnick was appointed a von Humboldt postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in 1987.

[22] There she continued work on using isotope fractionation to understand how chemical weathering of the continental crust has evolved alongside changing atmospheric chemistry.

[23] She is working on the concentration of heat producing elements (potassium, thorium and uranium) in the continental crust to estimate the Moho temperature.