Biography

I’m MC Cicenia (she/they), a PhD student in the Davies Lab here at the Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) as well as in the Echinonerd Lab at the University of Rhode Island (URI). I gradated with my Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from Vassar College in 2023, and following this, I worked at the U.S. EPA Atlantic Coastal Environmental Sciences Division (ACESD) studying the effects of emerging contaminants such as microplastics, bioplastics, 6PPD, and 6PPD-quinone. My research at GSO looks to establish a baseline presence of microplastics in the Narragansett Bay across a variety of environmental compartments as a part of the SIMCoast team. I hope to be able to advance the state of the science for microplastic research in an effort to produce science that can better inform public policy and knowledge of contaminants. Outside of research, I enjoy being not very good at a wide variety of hobbies such as rock climbing, reading, playing the bass guitar, and wandering the outdoors.