People

Chelsea Rochman – Assistant Professor and Co-Founder of the U of T Trash Team

I am currently on the faculty in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at University of Toronto. I am also a scientific advisor to the Ocean Conservancy and a National Geographic Explorer.

Previously, I was a David H. Smith Postdoctoral Fellow at the Aquatic Health Program at the University of California, Davis. I received my PhD in a joint program with San Diego State University and UC Davis in Ecology and was advised primarily by Swee Teh and Eunha Hoh. For more about me, please download my CV.

Current Members:

Katie Monat – Research Assistant

Mira Ghosh – Research Assistant

Mira Ghosh graduated from the University of Toronto with a Bachelor of Science majoring in biodiversity and conservation biology and forest conservation science with a minor in biology. She has worked on many projects in the lab but has primarily been focused on the pELAstics project and a 4^th year thesis project looking at a possible interaction between microplastic toxicity and food availability in Daphnia magna. Now she is working as a staff member in the lab, still mostly focused on the pELAstics project.

Brenda Li – Research Assistant

Brenda recently graduated from the University of Toronto with a double major in Biodiversity & Conservation Biology and Environmental Sciences, and a minor in Psychology. She is currently working on the MIMIC project which aims to investigate the effects of plastic pollution and stream flow on macrobenthic invertebrate community structure and function.

Simran Hansra – Research Assistant

Simran Hansra recently graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours BSc, double majoring in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity & Conservation (and with a minor in English!) In the Rochman Lab she works on the pSIREN project which aims to characterize plastics in the Don River. Currently, she is working in collaboration with the UofT Trash Team and Community Matters Toronto on a fellowship exploring the fate and transformation of plastic wet wipes in urban aquatic ecosystems.

Francis Nuamah – PhD Student

Francis holds a bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Education, Winneba, Ghana, and a master’s degree in Oceanography and Limnology from the University of Cape Coast. At the University of Cape Coast, he investigated the link between urbanization and microplastics pollution in the Ghanaian sea surface waters. Currently, Francis is a PhD student in the Rochman Lab at the University of Toronto, as well as the Hoffman and Tyler labs at RIT, focusing his research on the physical fate of microplastics within whole lake ecosystems.

Jacob Haney – PhD Student

Jacob received his Honours BSc in Environmental Science from Carleton University and is currently a PhD student in the Rochman Lab at the University of Toronto. He is studying the transport and fate of micro-and macro-plastics in urban stream environments in collaboration with the University of New Hampshire and Loyola University Chicago. Additionally, he will be conducting manipulative experiments to study the effects of micro- and macroplastics on freshwater benthic invertebrates and fish.

Meredith Omer – PhD Student

Meredith Omer is a PhD student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto St. George, studying microplastics fate and effects in freshwater fish. Meredith earned her undergraduate degree at Mount Holyoke College in environmental studies, with an honors thesis in biology researching the impacts of the pesticide Imidacloprid on rusty crayfish (Orconectes rusticus). She will be conducting her PhD research as part of the pELAstics Project.

Alice (Xia) Zhu – PhD Candidate

Alice (Xia) Zhu is a PhD student in the Rochman Lab studying the fate of plastic pollution in the marine environment. Alice is working in collaboration with researchers at CSIRO’s Marine and Atmospheric Research flagship and scientists at Acadia University to quantify plastic masses in global marine reservoirs. Alice will also be determining the transport mechanisms of plastic pollution throughout the ocean using a combination of field campaigns and oceanographic modelling in collaboration with various partners in research institutions and academia. Alice is excited about all things environmental and food-related.

Rachel Giles – PhD Candidate

Rachel uses field and laboratory approaches to understand how mixtures of anthropogenic contaminants impact wildlife in urban streams in two urban areas: the Greater Toronto Area and Northern Vietnam. She collaborates locally with the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, Environment and Climate Change Canada, and the Sinton Lab to understand how benthic macroinvertebrate communities respond to salt-laden urban runoff during the winter months. Internationally, she collaborates with Ocean Conservancy (US) and The Center for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (Vietnam) to investigate how litter and inorganic contaminants impact invertebrate communities. This multi-stressor, community-focused approach complements current research that recognizes the aforementioned contaminants that have harmful ecological effects.

Eden Hataley – PhD Student

Eden is a PhD student in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough studying plastic pollution policy and management. She is also a member of the pELAstics Project. Eden received her undergraduate degree in environmental chemistry and master’s degree in environmental studies from Queen’s University where she investigated the potential role of microplastics in influencing the environmental fate of waterborne toxins produced by cyanobacteria.

Dr. Zoie Diana – Postdoctoral Fellow

Zoie (pronouns: she/her) is a Liber Ero Postdoctoral Fellow in the Rochman Lab researching paint microplastics, both the extent of contamination in aquatic ecosystems and ecological effects on resident animals. This research is conducted with partners Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, and the Ocean Conservancy. Zoie is an interdisciplinary scholar interested in understanding the ecological consequences of plastic pollution and societal responses to this global issue. She earned her Ph.D. from Duke University in the Marine Science and Conservation Division and Environmental Health and Toxicology Program in 2023.

Erin Murphy – Postdoctoral Fellow

Erin Murphy is a postdoctoral researcher working in the Rochman lab and the Ocean Conservancy Trash Free Seas team. Broadly, she is interested in the nexus between marine conservation ecology and policy. Her postdoctoral research is focused on the physical impacts of macroplastic pollution on marine megafauna. She also continues to conduct research on upstream interventions to mitigate the social-ecological consequences of plastic production and pollution, as well as other pollutants in coastal ecosystems.

Dr. Garth Covernton – Postdoctoral Fellow

Garth is postdoctoral fellow working in the Rochman lab and the McMeans lab at U of T Mississauga as part of the pELAstics project. He studies how microplastic exposure affects the structure and energy flow within lake food webs using stable isotopes and fatty acids analyses. Garth is broadly interested in how potentially non-lethal contaminant stressors, such as microplastics, interact with aquatic ecology. He is especially intrigued by how stochastic statistical models can be used to characterize complex systems, such as food webs, to track how they respond to perturbations.

Dr. Wilson Ramirez-Duarte – Postdoctoral Fellow

Wilson worked as Postdoctoral Researcher at the Aquatic Health Program at the University of California-Davis, where he also completed his PhD in Pharmacology and Toxicology as a Fulbright Scholar, mentored by Dr. Swee Teh. He is also a Diplomat of the American Board of Veterinary Toxicology. He is currently investigating the role environmental changes (pollution, climate change, water quality) have on fish hybridization by studying the effects of multiple stressors on different levels of biological organization in parentals and hybrids in two populations of sympatric species in Mexico and Portugal. This research project is conducted in collaboration with the University of Lisbon, the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência and Stanford University, and sponsored by the Human Frontier Science Program.

Dr. Rafaela F. Gutierrez – Postdoctoral Fellow

Rafaela is a social scientist with expertise in waste policy. She has a keen interest in up- and downstream processes for plastic recycling. Over the past decade she has studied, advocated and worked with low-income communities in Brazil focusing on how to improve socio-productive integration into formal recycling streams. She is currently a research fellow at U of T, working on food waste awareness and reduction. She is excited to be part of the U of T Trash team and to develop strategies about how to deal with plastic waste and to increase waste literacy.

Ashlyn Nance – Undergraduate Researcher

Ashlyn is an undergraduate student at the University of Toronto completing a bachelor’s of science in Environmental Biology and Genetics with a certificate in sustainability. She has been a part of the University of Toronto Trash Team and Rochman lab for 2 years working in a variety of different projects including the sustainability education program, the fighting floatables project, and the pELAstics project. Currently, she is working on an independent research project assessing the processes that lead to accumulation of and entrainment of microplastics in shallow shoreline vegetation and rocks.

Zoë Ungku Fa’iz – Undergraduate Researcher

Zoë is an undergraduate student completing a specialist degree in Materials Science with a double minor in Chemistry and Forest Biomaterials. Her interest in learning more about the harmful materials in our environment grew through an internship with Ocean Uprise by Parley for the Oceans. She is a member of the U of T Trash Team and has worked on the Fighting Flotables – Seabin Project. She is currently working on characterizing and quantifying microplastics being emitted from landfills as leachate.

Elli Hung – Undergraduate Researcher

Elli is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Toronto specializing in ecology and evolutionary biology, majoring in molecular genetics, and minoring in environmental science. She has been working with the Rochman lab since second year investigating the impacts of multiple road runoff contaminants on freshwater species. She is currently conducting an independent research project to assess how the Daphnia magna transcriptome is impacted by multiple road runoff contaminants.

Past Lab Members:

Keenan Munno – Lab Manager and Research Assistant

Katie Wang – Undergraduate Researcher

Ludovic Hermabessiere – Postdoctoral Fellow

Bonnie Hamilton – PhD

Madeline Milne – Research Assistant

Alishba Afaq – Undergraduate Researcher

River Sung – Undergraduate Researcher

Ariba Afaq – Undergraduate Researcher

Kate Patton – Undergraduate Researcher

Emilie Nero – Undergraduate Researcher

Johny Wang – Undergraduate Researcher

Dr. Leah Chibwe – Visiting Research Fellow

Sam Athey – PhD

Lisa Erdle – PhD

Kennedy Bucci – PhD

Dr. Anna O’Brien – Postdoctoral Fellow

Hannah De Frond – Research Assistant (Currently with the U of T Trash Team!)

Hayley McIlwraith – Undergraduate Researcher and Research Assistant

Cassandra Sherlock – Undergraduate Researcher

Lauren Ead – Undergraduate Researcher

Arielle Earn – Undergraduate Researcher

Dorsa Nora-Parto – Undergraduate Researcher

Anthony Carrozzi – Undergraduate Researcher

Dr. Stephanie Borrelle – Postdoctoral Fellow

Lingyun Li – Visiting PhD Student

Clara Thaysen – MSc Student

Jan Bikker – Undergraduate Research Student

Cole Brookson – Undergraduate Research Assistant

Antonino Calarco – Undergraduate Research Assistant

Monina Cepeda – 299 Undergraduate Student

Miguel Felismino – NSERC Undergraduate Research Fellow

Gloria Gao – Research Assistant

Jelena Grbic – Research Assistant

Aimee Huntington – Undergraduate Research Assistant

Joel Kim – MSc Student

Natasha Klasios – Undergraduate Research Assistant

Dr. Anna Kolomijeca – Postdoc (Rochman and Sinton Group)

Anna Lisa – Undergraduate Research Assistant

Nicholas Tsui – MSc Student at UTM

Matthew Tulio – work study student

Lara Werbowski – NSERC Undergraduate Research Fellow

Tina Wu – Undergraduate Researcher