Justine Ammendolia is an EPt and PhD student at Dalhousie University. She researches the sources and pathways of environmental plastic pollution, with the goal of developing mitigation strategies. Justine’s passion for conservation was realized in 2014, when she was awarded the National Geographic Young Explorer Grant to travel to Greenland to research Arctic seabirds. During this time, she fostered an appreciation of the sensitivity of fragile ecosystems in a changing world. Since then, she has worked on addressing the plastic problem by publishing over a dozen scientific articles and delivering presentations to policymakers, classrooms, and multi-national NGOs and industries. Justine’s research and PhD has been supported by national and international grants. Her research paper on Canadian single-use plastics won the 2024 ECO IMPACT Student Paper Award. Justine mentors the next generation of scientists by working cohorts from National Geographic, The Nature Conservancy, and the Chief Science Advisor of Canada’s Office.