Jenna Jambeck (born 1974) an American environmental engineer who is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering at the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

. Her research considers

plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...

and efforts to address plastic waste. In 2022, she was awarded a

MacArthur Fellowship The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the MacArthur Foundation, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and ...

Early life and education

Jambeck grew up in

Pine City, Minnesota Pine City is a city in and the county seat of Pine County, Minnesota, Pine County, in east central Minnesota, United States. The population was 3,130 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Part of the city is on the Mille Lacs Indian Re ...

and graduated from Pine City High School. Jambeck was an undergraduate student at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

. She majored in environmental engineering, before starting a masters, then doctorate. During her doctoral research on CCA-treated wood, Jambeck worked alongside Debra Reinhardt and Helena Solo-Gabriele. In 2004, she started a

United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on De ...

postdoctoral fellowship in Florida.

Research and career

Jambeck was made an assistant professor at the

in 2005. She was promoted to associate professor in 2015, and became the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Environmental Engineering in 2020. In 2001, Jambeck started working on

marine debris Marine debris, also known as marine litter, is human-created solid material that has deliberately or accidentally been released in seas or the ocean. Floating oceanic debris tends to accumulate at the center of gyres and on coastlines, freque ...

, the solid plastic waste that accumulates in the shorelines of waterways. In 2014, Jambeck went on an ocean expedition with fourteen women scientists to better understand ocean plastics. The mission, "eXXpedition", looked to advance understanding of

microplastics Microplastics are "synthetic solid particles or polymeric matrices, with regular or irregular shape and with size ranging from 1 μm to 5 mm, of either primary or secondary manufacturing origin, which are insoluble in water." Microplastics a ...

and their impact on environmental and human health. Jambeck created debris tracker, an app that allows members of the public to monitor plastic pollution. The app, which started to track

, was supported by the

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...

. Based on data collected by this app, in 2015 Jambeck estimated that there was over 8 million metric tons of plastic entering the ocean every year. Jambeck was made a

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

Fellow in 2018. She looked to created standardized methods to characterize the factors which cause plastic waste leakage in the environment. These frameworks should provide strategies to prevent the potentially harmful side effects of plastic pollution. Alongside her work on plastic waste, Jambeck is interested in creating a

circular economy A circular economy (also referred to as circularity or CE) is a model of resource Production (economics), production and Resource consumption, consumption in any economy that involves sharing, leasing, Reuse, reusing, repairing, refurbishing, and ...

. She developed the Circularity Assessment Protocol, CAP, which includes plastics manufacturers, users and people who are involved with waste management. The CAP was used by people in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

to develop regulations to keep debris out of the water. In 2022, Jambeck was awarded a

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jambeck, Jenna Living people 1974 births 21st-century American engineers 21st-century American women engineers American environmental engineers MacArthur Fellows University of Florida alumni University of Georgia faculty