People
Kara Lavender Law, PhD
Research Professor of Oceanography
Kara joined the SEA faculty in 2003 to teach, oversee undergraduate research, and sail as Chief Scientist in SEA Semester programs, including in the regions dubbed “garbage patches” in the eastern North Pacific and western North Atlantic Oceans. For more than 15 years, she has researched plastic debris in the ocean, initially focusing on the physical processes that carry, transport and transform plastics in the marine environment, with more recent work focused “upstream” on the generation, pathways and treatment of plastic waste, ultimately aiming to prevent plastic leakage to the environment. Dr. Law received her Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography/University of California, San Diego in physical oceanography, and a B.S. in mathematics from Duke University.
Jessica Donohue, MS
Research Associate
Jessica joined the SEA plastics team in 2014. She is interested in studying how plastics move and change in the marine environment along with sharing information about ocean plastics through education and outreach. She holds a B.S. in environmental geology from Binghamton University, an M.S. from the University of Rhode Island in environmental science/hydrogeology and has a background in science education and outreach.
Past SEA Researchers
Gregory D. Boyd
Emelia DeForce, PhD
Deb Goodwin, PhD
Skye Morét, MFA
Giora Proskurowski, PhD
Amy Suida, PhD
Jude Wilber, PhD
Erik Zettler, PhD
Summer 2022 Interns
Previous Interns
Emily Dailey, 2018
Florida State University
Madeline Hughes, 2017
Wellesley College
Julia “JJ” McDowell, 2016
Cornell University
Kit Pavlekovsky, 2015
Carleton College
Ethan Edson, 2015
Northeastern University
Kate Tremblay, 2015 – 2016
University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth
Theophilos Collins, 2014
Duke University
High School Science Fair Projects
Students from Falmouth Academy, Falmouth, MA
Piper Augat, 2022
“A Comparison of Microplastics from the Caribbean and North Atlantic Gyre”
Sarah Thieler, 2019 & 2020
“Exploring the Presence of Microplastics in Great Pond”
“Microplastic Characterization in Surface Waters Near Pacific Islands”
Heather Wang, 2018
“The Degradation of Microplastic in the South Pacific Ocean”
Bishakha Oli, 2017
“Microplastics in the Coastal Ocean over Time”
Martha Clark, 2016
“Microplastic Ingestion by Oysters, Crassostrea virginica”
Palma Foschi Walko, 2015
“Which of Three Local Cape Cod Beaches has the Greatest Abundance of Plastic Debris?”
Funding and support provided by:
March Marine Initiative
The Henry L. and Grace Doherty Foundation
With additional support from:
Elemental Herbs