Six members from our UBC Microplastics Cluster — Marcus Johns, Lisa Kester, Matthew D. Kowal, Nicole McHugh, Teresa M. Seifried, Lori-jon Waugh — recently participated in the Microplastics & Marine Debris Workshop held at the Seattle Aquarium in Washington State. The event, organized by Dr. Veronica Padula and her team, served as a melting pot of insights, innovations, and discussions surrounding the critical issue of microplastics pollution.
Our team was engaged in the workshop, contributing through talks and insightful poster presentations. The Microplastics Cluster members delved into the profound environmental impact of microplastics, exploring its fate and impact in the environment as well as presenting new characterization technologies.

Lori, Lisa and Nicole presenting their work at the poster session.

Teresa talks about the potential influence of microplastics on cloud formation, in particular ice nucleation.

Matthew shows the participants how he uses interferometric scattering microscopy (iSCAT) to detect nanoplastics.

Marcus presents his new method for detecting microplastics using fluorescence.