Scientific Colloquium
November 16, 2016, 3:30 p.m., Building 3
Auditorium
TRACY MINCER
WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION
"The Unnatural History of
Plastic Marine Debris"
Plastic has become the most
common form of marine debris in the 60 years or so since it
entered the consumer arena and presents a major and growing
pollution problem. A material of immense utility and durability,
plastic has integrated seamlessly into our everyday lives.
However, these favorable properties have also enabled plastic
debris to fully integrate into the marine environment - from
microscopic to macroscopic scales. Paradoxically, this
persistent and abundant material presents a unique challenge to
track once it escapes the waste stream. Work in my laboratory,
together with collaborators, has focused on the first-order
question, “What is the fate of plastic debris once it enters the
marine environment?” Overall, this research has long-term aims
to provide a perspective on tracking and understanding plastic
debris export mechanisms that will enable an ocean-wide budget
to aid scientists and policy makers and inform the general
public.
About the Speaker:
Tracy John Mincer was born in Indiana and spent most of his
childhood in Alaska. A first-generation college student, Mincer
attended the University of Alaska in Fairbanks sporadically and
transferred to the University of California, San Diego in
1991—graduating in 1995 with a B.S. in Chemistry/Biochemistry.
Post-graduation he worked as a technician from 1995-1998 in the
laboratory of Professor Donald Helinski at University of
California, San Diego in the field of microbial genetics. Mincer
received his Ph.D. in Marine Chemistry in 2004 from the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography working in the laboratory of
Professor William Fenical in the field of marine microbial
natural products. From 2004-2008 he was a postdoctoral
researcher and lecturer at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in the laboratory of Professor Edward DeLong, working
in the field of microbial metagenomics. He has been a faculty
member of the Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry department at
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution since the summer of
2008. Research in the Mincer laboratory is focused on: 1)
understanding the fate of plastic marine debris and its
associations with microbes, 2) microbial production of volatile
organic carbon compounds and their role in geochemical cycling,
and 3) microbial chemical ecology and natural products
discovery.
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