Sophia Tigges

Sophia Tigges, a 2025 Graduate Summer Fellow at the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS), is a PhD candidate in Earth & Environment in the College of Arts & Sciences. As a researcher in coastal geomorphology, Tigges examines how saltmarsh and beach landscapes change over time in response to sea level rise, increased storminess, and other climate change pressures. Tigges’s three dissertation chapters investigate distinct aspects of saltmarsh resilience on multiple spatial and temporal scales to disentangle the complex feedback processes within these unique environments. This summer, Tigges is seeking to quantify the abundance of microplastic particles trapped in Massachusetts saltmarsh soils and to describe the transport and deposition of plastic pollutants in dynamic coastal systems.

Tigges’s faculty advisor is Duncan FitzGerald (Professor, Earth & Environment, College of Arts & Sciences) and their project is titled “Saltmarsh Microplastics: Quantifying Accumulation and Inferring Depositional Pathways in the Great Marsh and Boston Harbor, MA.”

Pronouns: they/them