Dr. Manca Kovač Viršek is a senior researcher in the field of microplastics at the Institute for Water of the Republic of Slovenia and the Geological Survey of Slovenia. She is biologist with PhD from Biomedicine, Genetics (Biotechnical faculty, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia). To a greater extent, her work includes developing of methodologies and monitoring of microplastics in the marine environment for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. She also works on developing of methodologies for monitoring microplastics in inland, underground water, wastewater and food. In addition, she also deals with research on microbial communities growing on microplastics or the so-called "plastisphere".