Emerita Professor Sarah Dunlop
Sarah Dunlop is Director, Plastics & Human Health Impact Mission at Minderoo Foundation and Emeritus Professor, The University of Western Australia. She leads pioneering research to eliminate the harmful effects of plastic by identifying casual evidence for harm to human health, thereby establishing industry accountability, and by developing safe and sustainable alternative materials. Since joining Minderoo in 2020, she has built and spearheaded global collaborations across Australia, Europe, the UK and US to undertake keystone research to drive systems change. The work involves defining the extent of the problem by synthesising existing evidence, developing accurate measurement techniques for plastic chemicals and micro- and nanoplastic particles in human biospecimens, and using hybrid epidemiology and clinical trials to uncover causal mechanisms underlying health impacts from plastic exposure. Parallel work involves accelerating the development and scaling of non-fossil fuel-based materials which do not contain toxic chemicals or fragment into micro- and nanoplastics.