Microplastics Research Brings Out Best in Young Scientist 

Undergraduate Danielle Zaleski earns research accolades and presidential award

By Monica Kortsha

Many geoscientists get into the field through a love of the outdoors, and a chance to escape the city. But for Danielle Zaleski, cities are where some of the most interesting — and important — questions in geosciences originate. That includes her research on the build-up of microplastics in the sediment of Lake Austin and Lady Bird Lake, both just a couple miles from The University of Texas at Austin campus.  

“When I saw an advertisement about researching microplastics in Austin’s waterways that was immediately eye-catching,” said Zaleski, who just graduated with her Bachelor of Science in Geology from the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. “It had the urban aspect that I liked, along with the geology and the environmental work.”   

Working with the Jackson School’s Cornel Olariu and Marcy Davis, Zaleski has spent the past two-and-a-half years as a student scientist analyzing how microplastics — ranging in size from 45 micrometers to 1 millimeter — have been accumulating in the lakes as the city grows. (See sidebar.) 

Her research is helping inform a City of Austin report on the scope of microplastic pollution and what can potentially be done about it. At the same time, it has helped Zaleski grow as a geoscientist — and prove herself as a valuable scientist in the lab.  

“Give her a small idea, and then suddenly, the next day, it’s double,” Olariu said. “It’s her style to improve and innovate.”  

For example, Olariu credits Zaleski with coming up with the method the lab uses to count microplastic particles in lake core samples under the microscope, which can reach into the thousands.  

“I told her a few basic things about [the software we use to count the microplastics], but she discovered the method we use herself and she gave us the way to do it,” he said.  

Zaleski’s excellence in research has made her a two-time winner of the Jackson School’s student research symposium in the undergraduate category. (The first win was part of a group poster.) And this spring, Zaleski won the President’s Student Employee of the Year Award from Jim Davis, the interim president of UT Austin.  

Usually, the president’s award goes to students excelling in administrative positions, which make up the majority of student jobs on campus. But Zaleski was selected for the award based on her aptitude as a researcher, said Marcy Davis, an engineering scientist at the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, who nominated her for the award.  

“She’s a real self-starter in terms of her science, and she is really good at it,” said Davis.   

Zaleski was drawn to the geosciences – and the Jackson School specifically – after taking an adaptation of the Jackson School’s introductory “Earth, Wind and Fire” course as a senior in high school through UT’s OnRamps program, which enables high schoolers to take popular UT courses for dual credit.  

“This is the only place I applied to,” Zaleski said. “My heart was pretty set on it that after that class.”  

Now, after earning her bachelor’s degree this spring, Zaleski will be continuing her microplastics research at the Jackson School as a master’s student starting in the fall, and will be expanding the scope of her research area to the Texas coast.  

She said that while her time in the lab has helped build a host of technical skills that will certainly come in handy during the next stage of her research career, she’s grateful for the host of challenges the school has provided throughout her undergraduate career — from presenting her research, to keeping up in field camp.  

“I’ve grown a lot more than I ever would have expected,” Zaleski said. “I am extremely appreciative of the resources provided by the school because I don’t think I ever would have sought out these kind of experiences if they weren’t presented to me here.” 

MICROPLASTICS IN AUSTIN’S LAKES

Microplastics are everywhere.   

Scientists have found them on Earth’s highest peaks and in its deepest ocean trenches. So, when Jackon School undergraduate student Danielle Zaleski started filtering microplastics in core samples from the bottom of Lake Austin and Lady Bird Lake, their abundance came as no surprise. 

She found them in every section of core pulled from the lake bottoms, with most being “road wear particles” — bits of asphalt binding and synthetic materials from tires.   

For the 2025 Jackson School student research symposium, Zaleski presented on the microplastics filtered from a 2.84-meter-long core from Lady Bird Lake. The core was divided into 20-centimeter intervals, resulting in 15 total samples.  

The microplastic accumulation in the core samples reflects the city’s booming growth. The oldest, deepest layers of the near 3-meter core have the fewest road wear particles, about 200 per 100 grams of sediment. Samples from the newest, shallowest layers have about 4,600 per 100 grams of sediment.  

Zaleski and her advisors are planning on determining the age of the core sediments, so the microplastic spikes can be potentially correlated to specific events, such as development or flooding.  

The Jackson School of Geosciences provides robust support to its students so they can focus on their studies and advancing geosciences research. Danielle Zaleski has been a recipient of numerous scholarships while at the Jackson School that have helped her excel and pursue her future as a geoscientist. To learn more about supporting students like her, contact Elizabeth Gibson at egibson@jsg.utexas.edu.