Mark Brandriss is an igneous petrologist and geochemist who teaches introductory courses in field geology and Earth history and more advanced courses in mineralogy and tectonics.

Brandriss' research is focused mainly on the processes by which magmas evolve and crystallize within the Earth's crust. He and his students use a combination of field studies and geochemical techniques to examine igneous rocks that formed in a variety of tectonic environments, including lavas and plutons related to hot-spot magmatism in Scotland and Iceland, and granitic plutons associated with mountain-building events in the Coast Range of southeastern Alaska and British Columbia.

He is also a faculty member with the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP), which, with student researchers from around the country and abroad, has been monitoring changes in the glaciers of the Coast Mountains continuously since 1948.