Bryan, assistant professor of chemical engineering at Northeastern University and director of the EcoBioMaterials Design Lab, has been selected to participate in the 2027 U.S.-Africa Frontiers of Science, Engineering, and Medicine symposium, convened by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. The symposium will take place March 16-18, 2027, in Accra, Ghana.
Modeled on the National Academies’ Kavli Frontiers of Science and the National Academy of Engineering’s Frontiers of Engineering programs, U.S.-Africa Frontiers brings together outstanding early-career scientists, engineers, and medical researchers from the United States and African Union member countries. The program aims to strengthen scientific exchange among young researchers in Africa and the U.S., including the African science diaspora, and to spark cross-disciplinary research discussions and collaborations within and beyond the region. The 2027 symposium will focus on five themes: vaccines and drug discovery, cancer, intelligent food systems, oceans and coastal environment, and energy security. Applications were reviewed by a senior panel of independent experts.
James learned of the program through a National Academies announcement and was drawn by its emphasis on international cross-disciplinary collaboration and its focus on oceans and coastal environments, a natural fit for his lab’s research on plastic pollution.
“Solving the plastic crisis requires a global, coordinated effort,” James said. “This symposium is an extraordinary opportunity to connect with African colleagues working on the front lines of ocean and coastal challenges, and I hope it is the start of lasting collaborations for my lab and our students.”
At the symposium, he will present a poster titled “Pyroplastics in the Ocean.”
Pyroplastics are pieces of plastic debris that have been burned, often through the open burning of waste. The practice is common across Asia, Africa, and South America, where plastic is burned for waste management and as fuel. Recent global estimates suggest that 57% of unmanaged plastic waste is burned in the open. Working with international collaborators and a community beach cleanup group, James’ lab has analyzed hundreds of pyroplastic samples collected from beaches. The team has found that burning transforms plastic’s shape, size, and color, camouflaging it from traditional marine debris monitoring. Burning also makes the plastic brittle and prone to fragmenting into microplastics. Pyroplastics can also contain levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a class of carcinogenic compounds, roughly 100 times greater than those found in other marine plastic debris. The work, which began during James’s postdoctoral research at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), is now led in his lab by interdisciplinary PhD student Cara Megill, who recently published a first-author paper with collaborators at WHOI and Waters Corporation.
International partnership has been central to James’ research. As a postdoc, he worked with Sri Lankan marine conservationist Asha de Vos, founder of Oceanswell, to assess the 2021 M/V X-Press Pearl ship fire and plastic spill off Sri Lanka, providing responders with rapid, actionable information. That collaboration produced four peer-reviewed papers, two public fact sheets, and a cover story in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN). It also led to further work with Sri Lankan scientist Meththika Vithanage, including co-editing a textbook on marine pollution. He has also studied burned plastic on Indonesian beaches with Dwi Amanda Utami of Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, and worked with Brazilian oceanographers to trace oil-covered plastic bottles from Brazil’s largest oil spill to South Florida, research covered by Northeastern Global News, C&EN, and Eos.
“Plastic pollution is a wicked problem no single lab or country can solve alone,” James said. “Open burning is one of the most widespread ways plastic waste is disposed of around the world, including in many African communities, yet we are only beginning to understand what this practice means for ocean and human health. Some of the most meaningful work of my career has come from partnering with international colleagues, and I’m honored to join this symposium to build new relationships with African researchers who share the same commitment to international scientific and cultural exchange. I’m excited to listen, learn, and find ways to work together on solutions to the many challenges facing humanity and our planet.”
Reprinted from Northeastern University College of Engineering announcement.