Anastasiia Snigirova

Dr. Anastasiia Snigirova is a marine biologist studying microplastic contamination in the ocean. She works as a senior project officer in the Nano and Microplastics Research Consortium at Flinders University, aiming to create productive partnerships to develop methods for identifying and quantifying plastics of various sizes in nature, and to tackle plastic pollution by developing mitigation strategies.

Her main background is in biological oceanography, she did her PhD in 2015 studying sand-dwelling microalgae in the Black Sea region at Odesa National I.I.Mechnikov University (Ukraine). Since 2019 she assumed the role of Head of the Department of Ecology of Contact Communities at the Institute of Marine Biology of the NAS of Ukraine. In this leadership position, she played a pivotal role in shaping the direction of ecological research and fostering collaboration among talented scientists. Since 2018 her main research interest has been focused on marine litter and its interaction with organisms, which led to the creation of the research group of scientists at the Institute of Marine Biology (Ukraine) on studies of biofouling on plastic in laboratory and field experiments.

Anastasiia joined Flinders Univeristy`s microplastic research group in October 2022. She has mastered spectroscopy techniques to identify polymers, which was a valuable addition to her biological background. In 2024 she also worked with Marine Bioproducts CRC as a research associate in Algal Biofilms, focusing on microalgae growth on modified surfaces. Being Casual Academics at Flinders University Anastasiia is involved in several topics as a lecturer and demonstratrator.