The evolving global plastics policy landscape: An inventory and effectiveness review

Tibor Vegh serves as a senior policy associate with the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability. He is an applied social scientist with a background in environmental planning and economics. Vegh’s applied and policy-relevant research centers on the resilience of coupled human and natural systems; the economic, social, and environmental implications within the context of coastal adaptation; and the reliance on natural systems to benefit communities in the face of uncertainty and environmental risks. Vegh is a lead or collaborator on a wide range of projects where he contributes his economic, financial, and policy analysis skills, as well as his understanding of environmental planning approaches to solve real-world problems.

Vegh’s most recent work focuses on the social and economic aspects of coastal and urban resilience and multidimensional adaptation to risks in coastal and ocean systems. He has also collaborated on projects spanning many other topics, including fisheries economics, plastics pollution mitigation, ecological restoration, ecosystem service markets, bioenergy, and more.

Vegh holds a PhD in city and regional planning with a focus on environmental planning from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. He earned his master's degree in forestry with a focus on economics from Northern Arizona University in 2011 and his bachelor's degree in economics with a minor in mathematics from North Carolina State University in 2008.

My day to day research focus is ecology with emphasis on larval biology, chemical, behavioral, spatial ecology and environmental toxicology. Theoretical contributions are in the origins and evolution of chemical systems. Presently, there are three areas of focus: 1) Ecology and behavioral biology of local macroinvertebrates such as blue crabs and mud snails; 2) Barnacle models as they relate to fouling and the prevention of fouling and bioadhesives; 3. Impacts of xenobiotics on behavior and reproduction. I and my students are funded in all three areas with grants to work on a variety of aspects of ecology and reproduction of blue crabs, grants to study families of barnacles with heritable biological adhesive phenotypes and to provide expertise in barnacle biology and to provide living material for the Office of Naval Research Fouling Research program and funding to study impacts of biocide boosters on reproduction and fecundity of target and non target species. I am continuing to participate in an antifouling program in Singapore which began January 2000. The Singapore program has the goal of using drugs from medicine as environmentally benign antifoulants. I have recently begun collaborative research programs in India and Brazil.

John Virdin is director of the Coastal and Ocean Policy Program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions.

Virdin’s areas of expertise include assisting developing country governments to reform and strengthen their institutions responsible for ocean fisheries, thereby reducing poverty and enhancing sustainability, and creating policy and institutional frameworks governing a wide range of human activities that drive change in ocean ecosystems, including activities leading to the conversion or degradation of natural coastal habitats.

Virdin worked for more than 10 years at the World Bank, most recently as acting program manager for the Global Partnership for Oceans, a coalition of more than 150 governments, companies, nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and multi-lateral agencies. He advised the Bank on oceans and fisheries governance and helped it increase its lending for sustainable oceans to more than $1 billion. His work led to development of programs that provided more than $125 million in funding for improved fisheries management in six West African nations and some $40 million for fisheries and ocean conservation in a number of Pacific Island nations.

Prior to his tenure at the World Bank, Virdin worked with the World Resources Institute, the Munson Foundation, the World Conservation Network, the World Wildlife Fund, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Virdin holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Wake Forest University.  He will receive his doctorate in marine policy from the University of Delaware in 2015.