Xia (Alice) Zhu

I am a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow at Memorial University of Newfoundland investigating the transport and impact of microplastics on the biological carbon pump in the North Atlantic Ocean. Previously, I was a Vanier Scholar in the Rochman Lab in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto studying the sources, transport, and fate of plastic pollution in the environment. I am interested in the connections between plastic pollution, carbon cycling, and climate change. I was a Visiting Graduate Student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego in 2023 modelling the quantity of plastic pollution in global marine reservoirs including the amount being carried around by marine biota at any given time. I was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Tasmania, Australia in 2018 also modelling the fate of plastic pollution under a CGS-Michael Smith Foreign Study Supplement. I am heavily involved in environmental advocacy in my community and beyond. I have a PhD in Physical and Environmental Sciences, a Master of Science in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Chemistry, all from the University of Toronto.