Marcus Eriksen

Director of Science & Innovation at 5 Gyres

Director of Science and Innovation at 5 Gyres, Marcus Eriksen has led expeditions around the world to research marine pollution, co-publishing the first global estimate an the discovery of plastic microbeads in the Great Lakes, which led to the federal 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. 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 and is currently in development of the Leap Lab Institute. Bio from 5 Gyres