Vaibhavi is an interdisciplinary scientist with a background in Arts, Law and Environmental Management. She has worked on invasive species management in the Hawaiian Islands during her master’s degree and later with the state of Hawaiʻi. Her passion for ocean conservation led her to her current PhD research that investigates the governance issues around increasing plastic pollution in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica. Through this work, she is hoping to identify policy gaps in the current governance system and provide recommendations to address them.