Meet the team
Scientific and Engineering Staff
Amy Apprill
Co-Principal Investigator
Marine Microbiologist
Amy Apprill is a microbial ecologist who is interested in the role of microorganisms in degrading plastics in the ocean.
Carol Anne Clayson
Co-Principal Investigator
Physical Oceanographer
Carol Anne Clayson is an air-sea interaction specialist interested in the effects of weather and climate on upper ocean mixing and resulting distributions of microplastics in the upper ocean.
Scott M. Gallager
Principal Investigator
Biological Oceanographer
Scott Gallager is a plankton ecologist interested in biophysical mechanisms controlling population and community structure in the ocean. Physical processes such as upwelling and downwelling, Langmier cells and tidal fronts provide mechanisms for aggregation
Jake Gebbie
Co-Principal Investigator
Physical Oceanographer
Jake Gebbie is a physical oceanographer interested in climate dynamics and the transport of microplastics in the ocean. His interest is to determine the fate of microplastics in the open ocean, especially the subsurface, and also to determine whether microplastics can be used to better understand the physical movement of seawater.
Mark Hahn
Co-Principal Investigator
Toxicologist
Mark Hahn is a toxicologist whose research seeks to understand the molecular mechanisms by which microplastics and nanoplastics impact the health of marine organisms and humans. The Hahn lab uses a variety of model systems, including zebrafish and Atlantic killifish.
Anna Michel
Co-Principal Investigator
Chemical Sensors Lab
Anna Michel is an oceanographic engineer whose research focuses on developing and advancing technologies for detecting and identifying microplastics in aqueous environments.
Collin Ward
Co-Principal Investigator
Photochemist
Collin Ward is an environmental chemist interested in how plastics break down in the environment, what they are transformed into, and the timescales that these processes occur.
Students, Research Assistants, and Postdocs
Jordan Pitt
Jordan Pitt is a Ph.D. student in Mark Hahn’s and Neel Aluru’s labs working to understand microplastic and nanoplastic accumulation and impacts in marine organisms.
Particles on the Move from Oceanus magazine
Anna Walsh
Anna Walsh is a Joint Program student in Collin Ward’s and Chris Reddy’s labs studying the environmental degradation of consumer plastics by sunlight, with a focus on plastic lifetimes, degradation products, and the effects of additives.
Taylor Nelson
Taylor Nelson is a postdoc in Collin Ward’s and Chris Reddy’s labs investigating the influences and interplay of sunlight and biofilm formations on the degradation products and lifetimes of consumer plastics in marine waters.
Communications and Development
Ken Kostel
Ken Kostel has been a science writer and multimedia producer for nearly 20 years and has worked at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for the past decade. In 2003, he graduated from the Earth & Environmental Science Journalism program at Columbia University. Since then, he has focused on helping scientists tell their stories and given people a behind-the-scenes look at science and exploration in words, images, and video in print, online, and on social media.
Evan Lubofsky
Alison Kline
Alison Kline is the Director of Corporate and Foundation Relations at WHOI and works with funders from the private sector interested in having an impact on the field of microplastics research. https://giving.whoi.edu/foundation-giving/