19552 GW Mag 26_Final_singles - Flipbook - Page 18
Lakes to Labs:
Chemistry’s Pincus
Tracks Microplastics
in Motion
Chemistry Professor Lauren Pincus
charts plastic pollution in real-world
conditions. Her work may inform
strategies for a cleaner environment.
Chemistry’s Lauren Pincus tests how microplastics move through the environment
by placing common household items along New Jersey’s Barnegat Bay.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF CHEMISTRY LAUREN PINCUS
doesn’t always work in a sterile high-tech research facility.
Sometimes her lab is in the brackish waters of northern New
Jersey bays. Instead of a white coat and goggles, she wears
waterproof hip waders and mosquito repellent. And her
equipment, rather than state-of-the-art instruments, is plastic
bags, nylon ropes and milk crates from Home Depot.
Pincus and her student researchers track how plastics
move through the environment in real-world conditions.
Sometimes that involves studying scientific samples with
powerful particle accelerators. And sometimes that means
tagging store-bought products along the Jersey shorelines.
Supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Earth
Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship grant, Pincus planted plastic
drop cloths and ropes along lakes and bays for two years. In
her GW lab, she and her research team—PhD student Brian
Beukema, master’s student Emma Finigan and undergraduate
environmental science and chemistry major Ivy Ha—are
examining those filmy, algae-coated samples for insights
into how harmful microplastics degrade in nature.
Her work bridges the gap between studies that quantify
plastic pollution on beaches and rivers and others that simulate
weathering conditions under controlled settings. Pincus aims
to “capture the full complexity of what’s actually happening
to [plastics] in the environment,” she said.
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Growing up in Montclair, N.J., Pincus spent much of
her childhood outdoors, backpacking with her family and
developing a deep appreciation for the natural world. When
she discovered a passion for chemistry, it seemed only natural
to combine her enthusiasm for science with her zeal to
protect the environment.
“I love chemistry,” she said. “If you understand chemistry
and chemical reactions, it’s a great lens through which to
view the whole world. It’s amazing how interactions on an
atomic level translate into real-world issues.”
For Pincus, few environmental threats feel more
pressing—and more pervasive—than microplastics. Indeed,
a collaboration between the National Park Service and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tested
37 beaches across U.S. national parks and shorelines for
microplastics. The pollutants were found at all of them.
“They’ve been observed in the deep oceans, Antarctica,
the Arctic,” Pincus said. “They’re in our atmosphere, our
water, our soils. They are everywhere.”
A Living Laboratory
At GW, Pincus’ lab operates on two tracks. Her environmental chemistry focus is “observational,” she said, tracing
how pollutants move, accumulate and change in natural
