UGA Professor Jenna Jambeck named USA TODAY's Women of the Year Georgia honoree

Jenna Jambeck, an environmental engineering professor at University of Georgia has been named one of USA TODAY’s Women of the Year. She made it to the list for her research about the avenues through which plastic pollution ends up in the ocean. 

Jenna’s research specifically focuses on where plastic pollution comes from and how it ends up in the world's oceans. She co-founded the Marine Debris Tracker app IN 2010 along with and Kyle Johnsen and in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The app crowdsources and shares openly pollution data to solidify research efforts.

A study by Jenna and her colleagues at the National Center for Ecological Analysis found that between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of plastic entered the ocean from coastal areas in 2010 alone.

In 2015, Jenna became the first person to ever calculate the quantity of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. She also found that 90.5 percent of plastic has never been recycled. The statistic was named the International Statistic of the Year by the Royal Statistical Society in 2018.

Jenna has consistently track marine pollution and was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship Grant in 2022, also known as the Genius Grant.                    

As stated on the USA TODAY website, Women of the Year is a endeavour that “honors local and national heroines who make a positive impact in their communities every day.” It is a continuation of USA TODAY’s Women of the Century in 2020, a project that highlighted women from the century.

Jenna is one of 64 women chosen this year. Other illustrious names include include Michelle Obama, Sandra Day O’Connor and Leigh Finke, the first transgender legislator in the Minnesota House of Representatives among others.