Dr. Marcus Eriksen is the co-founder of Leap Lab and the Research Director and co-founder of the 5 Gyres Institute. He has led expeditions around the world to research plastic marine pollution, and he co-published the first global estimate of plastic microbead pollution and the discovery of plastic microbeads in the Great Lakes leading to the U.S. Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015. He and Anna Cummins began 5 Gyres with an 88-day journey from California to Hawaii on the Junk Raft built from 15,000 plastic bottles. He received his PhD from University of Southern California and has published two books: My River Home (Beacon, 2008), and Junk Raft (Beacon, 2017). Heir Arjun Subramanian is honored to have Dr. Eriksen as his expert mentor in his plastic studies.
