De Wolff received her Ph.D. in Communication and Science Studies from the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests include the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and oceanic environmental problems with cultures of consumption and waste. During her fellowship, De Wolff will extend her research to elaborate how undercurrents of capitalism form a garbage patch and how the debris from the March 2011 Japan Tsunami redefines problems of plastic pollution in the North Pacific. Her public humanities project “Watershed Connections: the Art and Science of Ecological Flows” will consist of a series of collaborative events that connect water-themed art and science with the community in the context of immediate local challenges.