Special Interview with Dr. Kate Sheehan - First Prize Winner of the JEEA 2025 Best Paper Award
On February 4, 2026, the Editorial Office of Journal of Environmental Exposure Assessment (JEEA) interviewed Dr. Kate Sheehan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD, USA, and recipient of the JEEA 2025 Best Paper Award (First Prize). The interview was led by Dr. Yifan Xu from the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
Dr. Sheehan's award-winning study Bioaccumulation, transfer, and impacts of microplastics in aquatic food chains presents a comprehensive assessment of microplastic bioaccumulation and trophic transfer in aquatic food webs, offering important insights into the ecological and exposure-related consequences of plastic pollution.
During the interview, Dr. Sheehan explained that microplastics can reduce primary productivity and disrupt energy flow through bottom-up effects, with ecological impacts strongly influenced by plastic type, shape, and size. She emphasized that food chain-mediated exposure pathways are still insufficiently addressed in current risk assessment frameworks, representing a critical gap with implications for both ecosystem stability and potential human exposure. She also outlined future research directions focusing on interactions among microplastics, parasites, and microbial communities to better understand the broader ecological and health consequences of plastic pollution.
Watch the video below for Dr. Kate Sheehan's expert insights:
Interview Questions:
1. Your study provides a comprehensive assessment of microplastic bioaccumulation and transfer across aquatic trophic levels. What do you consider the most important or unexpected finding of this work, and why is it particularly significant for advancing microplastic research?
2. Based on your findings, how do microplastics influence energy flow and trophic interactions within aquatic food webs? What are the key implications for ecosystem functioning and potential human exposure through aquatic food chains?
3. Do you think current environmental risk assessment frameworks adequately capture food-chain-mediated effects of microplastics?
4. How might the findings of your study help inform future environmental management strategies or policy decisions related to plastic pollution?
5. Looking ahead, what key questions will your lab focus on in the next five years?
Interviewee Profile:
Dr. Kate Sheehan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Frostburg State University, Frostburg, MD, USA. Her research lies at the intersection of plastics ecology, ecological parasitology, and aquatic food web dynamics. She earned her PhD in Wildlife & Fisheries Biology from Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA, and holds advanced degrees in Marine Science and Biology. Dr. Sheehan's work focuses on how plastic pollution and parasitic organisms interact to influence trophic relationships and ecosystem function across freshwater, estuarine, and marine systems. She has published influential work on microplastic bioaccumulation and trophic transfer in aquatic food webs, significantly advancing understanding of plastic impacts on aquatic ecosystems. Beyond plastics ecology, her research also addresses disease ecology, parasite-host interactions, and community-level ecological processes. Dr. Sheehan is actively engaged in collaborative research, teaching courses such as ecology and limnology, and mentoring students in both field and laboratory investigations.
Interviewer Profile:
Dr. Yifan Xu is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China, mentored by Prof. Tong Zhu, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Dr. Xu's research focuses on the health effects and underlying mechanisms of extreme environmental exposures (e.g., extreme temperatures, high-altitude hypoxia, and air pollution). Notably, he participated as a young scientist in the "Earth Summit Mission 2022: Scientific Expedition and Research on Mount Qomolangma." He has published in leading journals such as National Science Review, Environmental Science & Technology, and Environment International, with studies covering human adaptation to high altitude, extreme temperature-related cardiovascular risk, and lipidomic mechanisms of pollutant-induced cardiometabolic effects.
Editor: Tracy Sun
Language Editor: Catherine Yang
Production Editor: Ting Xu
Respectfully Submitted by the Editorial Office of Journal of Environmental Exposure Assessment
