About Dr. Marcus Eriksen, PhD
Marcus Eriksen is the Research Director and co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute, and recently co-founding Leap Lab. He studies the global distribution and ecological impacts of plastic pollution, which has included over 20 expeditions sailing across all 5 ocean basins, Bay of Bengal, Southern Ocean and inland lakes and rivers – publishing the first global estimate of all plastic of all sizes floating in the world’s oceans in 2015. Today Eriksen and his team are focused on helping cities worldwide to understand the systems and sources of plastic pollution, as well as working with corporations to validate solutions.
Leap Lab is a new non-profit committed to improving science literacy across the U.S. It is a network of science centers providing the public with exhibits, education programs, workshops and expeditions that focus on solutions to the problems facing a growing population with great material, food and energy demands, on a planet with finite space and resources. To survive and thrive in this century, we must lead with science.
When not leading expeditions through plastic seas, or the fossil beds of Eastern Wyoming to hunt dinosaurs, he and his family spend their time building the 15 acre farm that will be Leap Lab Ventura.