Justine Ammendolia

Justine Ammendolia is a Canadian environmental scientist, plastic pollution researcher and National Geographic Explorer. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Zoology at the University of Guelph and her Master of Science in Marine Biology at Memorial University of Newfoundland. She has won several internationally competitive research grants with the National Geographic Society to support her work—from researching Arctic seabird ecology in Eastern Greenland to tracking plastic pollution from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Justine shares stories about her experiences and her scientific field in her writings for Explorer magazine and by speaking at youth leadership events in collaboration with National Geographic. Currently pursuing her doctorate at Dalhousie University, she has been nationally recognized as a Graduate Doctoral Scholar by Nova Scotia, Killam and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. In addition to her research, Justine also sits on the Youth Council for the Chief Science Advisor of Canada and advocates for diversity in natural sciences.