Marcus Eriksen
5 Gyres Institute, CoFounder & Research Director/Board Member
Marcus has led expeditions around the world to research plastic marine pollution, publishing the first global estimate and the discovery of plastic micro-beads in the Great Lakes, which led to the federal Micro bead free Waters Act of 2015. He and Anna Cummins began 5 Gyres with an 88day journey from California to Hawaii on the Junk Raft, built from 15,000 plastic bottles. Earlier, Marcus had rafted the Mississippi River, writing about the river and his experience as a Marine in the 1991 Gulf War in the book, My River Home (Beacon 2008). His second book, Junk Raft: An ocean voyage and a rising tide of activism to fight plastic pollution (Beacon 2017) recalls the rise of the plastic pollution movement, growing steadily today. He received his Ph.D from USC. Currently in development of the Leap Lab Institute