Win Cowger, Ph.D.

Advancing open-source technology for classifying plastic pollution

Plastic pollution is a persistent and growing threat to marine biodiversity, with millions of tons of plastic entering the ocean each year. Tiny plastic particles—known as nanoplastics—and the chemicals they release, called plastic leachate, pose the greatest risk to human health because they can cross the blood-brain barrier and accumulate in body tissues. However, their small size makes detection and identification extremely challenging, requiring advanced equipment and costly proprietary software.

Win Cowger will use his Pew-Gerstner fellowship to enhance the capabilities of Open Specy, an open-source tool he developed to help researchers worldwide classify and analyze different types of plastic pollution. He will build a robust reference library and develop new algorithms to improve the identification of nanoplastics, small microplastics, and leachates in the marine environment. Cowger will also lead training workshops to help others use these tools for risk assessments, studies to identify pollutant sources, and interventions to address plastic pollution.

To learn more about Dr. Cowger, read his bio.

See the full list of 2026 Pew marine fellows.