Liz Miller
Liz Miller, PhD
Liz Miller received a B.S. in Environmental Science and Chemistry from Warren Wilson College, and a Ph.D. in Environmental Toxicology from the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Her graduate research focused on plant uptake and accumulation of ionizable organic contaminants, with an emphasis on contaminant mixture effects and rhizosphere interactions. At SFEI, Liz assists with emerging contaminants research and provides toxicology expertise for both the Bay and Delta Monitoring Programs.
Related Projects, News, and Events
Wired Magazine: A new report shows an astounding amount of microplastics, largely from car tires, are tainting the watershed (News)Photograph: Getty Images
Matt Simon from Wired Magazine writes:
San Francisco Bay, like Monterey Bay to its south, is a rare success story in ocean conservation. In the 1960s, three grassroots activists—Sylvia McLaughlin, Kay Kerr, and Esther Gulick—launched Save the Bay, which beat back developers trying to fill in parts of the iconic body of water.
The Guardian publishes on article on SFEI's microplastics study, further extending the report's reach (News)Photograph: Sebastian Kennerknecht/Alamy
Maanvi Singh from the US edition of the Guardian, based in the UK, writes, “It was basically everywhere we looked,” said Rebecca Sutton, an environmental scientist at the San Francisco Estuary Institute, a local institution that led the three-year, $1.1m research effort.
Groundbreaking SFEI and 5 Gyres microplastics study featured in multiple media outlets (News)
Concurrent with a sold-out symposium on Oct 2nd, several media outlets, including the Mercury News, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times, have released the articles relating the alarming findings regarding the pervasive presence of microplastics in our surface waters. The issue of microplastics is global in nature. However, the advances in understanding the magnitude of the problem are happening regionally through partnerships with 5 Gyres, the University of Toronto Trash Team, and other notable leaders.
2019 Symposium on San Francisco Microplastics (Event)Image by Ruth Askevold
The San Francisco Estuary Institute and the 5 Gyres Institute have completed a first-of-its-kind, comprehensive regional study of microplastic pollution of a major urban estuary and adjacent ocean environment.