Dr. Win Cowger (AKA Dr. Trash) is the Research Director at the Moore Institute for Plastic Pollution Research and a Visiting Scholar of the Gray Lab at UCR. He studies the sources, transport, and fate of plastic pollution. His science focuses on identifying solutions to plastic pollution and assessing their effectiveness. As an applied scientist, Win collaborates with nonprofits, government, academics, and industry to implement science in practice.

Speaker abstract (if applicable): Plastic is a huge part of the global consumer product market today.  Microplastics can come from the breakdown of the consumer products themselves or can be added intentionally to endow other properties to the products. Consumers are becoming more wary of the impacts of microplastics on the environment and on their health. This talk will cover the current scientific knowledge about microplastics from consumer products, current and proposed policies, best practices in product development, and techniques for monitoring and tracking progress in reducing microplastic release from consumer products.