Steering Committee

Vitória Scrich is an environmental scientist from the University of São Paulo (USP) and a policy advisor at the Secretariat for Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics of the State of São Paulo, Brazil. Her work focuses on marine litter and solid waste governance, with emphasis on integrating science-based approaches into public policy. She has contributed to the development of national and state strategies to combat plastic pollution, including Brazil’s National Ocean Without Plastic Strategy and São Paulo’s State Plan to Monitor and Combat Marine Litter. Vitória is a member of the Scientists' Coalition for an Effective Plastics Treaty and participates in the sessions of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee to develop an international legally binding instrument on plastic pollution.

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Dr. Thomas Maes is a senior scientist and founder of SEAMOHT Ltd, an independent consultancy working at the science–policy interface on marine pollution, waste, and circular economy. With a multidisciplinary background in civil engineering, marine and terrestrial biology, and a PhD in ecotoxicology, he has over 20 years of experience across research, policy, and international projects. He supports global initiatives through collaborations with UN frameworks and Horizon Europe, focusing on marine litter, microplastics, and emerging pollutants. His work centres on harmonising monitoring approaches and translating scientific evidence into actionable policy, contributing to coordinated global observing systems such as IMDOS.

Christopher Pham is a Research Associate at the Okeanos Institute for Marine Sciences, University of the Azores, with over 15 years of experience studying human impacts on deep-sea ecosystems and plastic pollution. He currently leads the Azores Marine Litter Laboratory and has authored 85 peer-reviewed publications. He is an active member of several international expert groups focused on marine pollution and deep-sea ecology, and has served as Chair of the ICES Working Group on Marine Litter (WGML). Throughout his career, he has contributed as both principal investigator and collaborator on numerous national and international research projects, and he is actively engaged in science-policy initiatives.

ResearchGate

Researcher at the Institute of Oceanology of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IO PAN)

François Galgani, former scientist at IFREMER, chairs the NGO Echos d’Oceans, specialising in plastic pollution. He has coordinated numerous expert groups for the United Nations, Regional Seas Conventions, and the European Commission (MSFD Directive, 2010–2022). François Galgani has contributed to major global initiatives (G7, G20, UNEA) and to the European mission “Restoring Our Oceans and Waters.” Author of more than 230 international publications, he serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journals Marine Pollution Bulletin and Journal of Marine Systems, and is responsible for the “Marine Litter” chapter of the UN Global Ocean Assessment (WOA II & WOA III).  

Toste Tanhua is a chemical oceanographer focusing on ocean ventilation and mixing by observing transient tracers and conducting deliberate tracer release experiments. He also works on understanding the dynamics of ocean carbon, nutrients and oxygen, and particularly the role of ocean chemistry in climate change. Toste is particularly interested in improving the sustained ocean observing systems, and currently coordinates the EU project BioGeoSea on biogeochemical Essential Ocean Variables. He is also leading the innovation platform Shaping an Ocean Of Possibilities for science-industry collaboration (SOOP), that is enabling non-scientists to observe the ocean.

Giuseppe Suaria is a marine ecologist and senior scientist at the Institute of Marine Sciences of the Italian National Research Council (ISMAR-CNR). His work focuses on studying the distribution, transport and composition of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, with emphasis on harmonizing sampling and monitoring methods. He has authored over 50 scientific publications and participated in more than 35 oceanographic expeditions across the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Arctic and Antarctic. An active editor, reviewer and science communicator, he contributes to international plastic pollution networks and serves on the Steering Committee of the Integrated Marine Debris Observing System (IMDOS).

Stefano Aliani is Science Director at the Lerici section of the Institute of Marine Science of the National Research Council of Italy. He leads the Plastic Pollution Laboratory and has served as principal investigator and coordinator of national and international research projects, as well as chief scientist on multiple oceanographic cruises, including polar expeditions. His research integrates physical oceanography and ecology, focusing on how oceanographic processes shape marine ecosystems. Since the 1990s, he has investigated the distribution of marine debris and the dispersal through ocean currents. He is also actively engaged in science‑policy activities, among them the Plastic Treaty, and serves on several international working groups and expert panels. Stefano Aliani has also served as Vice President of SCOR and ISC expert for plastic pollution.

Ryota Nakajima is a biological oceanographer with interests in the fate and impacts of plastic debris in deep-sea environments. He conducts extensive surveys of the seafloor litter across Japan using deep-sea exploration vehicles such as Shinkai 6500.

ResearchGate

María Belén Alfonso is an Associate Professor specializing in plastic pollution, with a focus on microplastics in freshwater and marine systems. She leads the Field-Driven Research Unit at the Center for Ocean Plastic Studies, Kyushu University, and serves as a member of the AOMI Secretariat. She has led and contributed to international research initiatives advancing harmonized methodologies and large-scale monitoring of microplastics. Her work integrates environmental chemistry and ecology to elucidate the sources, distribution, and ecological impacts of plastic pollution, including pioneering studies on microplastic ingestion by plankton and its implications for trophic transfer. She is actively engaged in capacity building and science–policy processes, contributing to global efforts to improve data comparability and inform evidence-based policy on plastic pollution.

Shungu Garaba is a hyperspectral remote sensing researcher specializing on all floating matter, water quality monitoring and oean colour related field campaigns including Fiducial Reference Measurements. His recent focus has been on experimental and scientific evidence-based approaches to explore remote sensing of floating and submerged plastic litter in all aquatic environments supported by citizen science, capacity building, sophisticated ocean models and machine learning approaches. As a keen remote sensing scientist on the topic along with peers from academia, industry, non-governmental, member state and international agencies they founded the IOCCG Task Force on Remote Sensing of Marine Litter and Debris and served as the Scientific Chair (2021-2024). He has experience at international and high level policy related contributions through scientific evidence-based research funded by UNEP to establish remote sensing based sub-indicators for SDG 14 as well as capacity building including sustainable solutions for leakage waste monitoring supported by The World Bank Group.

IOCCG Task Force on Remote Sensing of Marine Litter and Debris

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Kirsten Gilardi is a wildlife veterinarian and January 2026 retiree from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, where she led the Karen C. Drayer Wildlife Health Center. Since 2006 Gilardi has directed the California Lost Fishing Gear Recovery Project, and since 2019 she has been a member of the Joint Group of Experts on Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP), where she serves as GESAMP Vice-Chair and Chair of Working Group 43 on Sea-based Sources of Ocean Litter.  Gilardi also serves on the Expert Advisory Council for the Global Ghost Gear Initiative.