Graduate Student Researcher, Environmental Sciences, University of California, Riverside, August 2020 - Present.

Graduate Teaching Assistant, Water Resources, University of California, Riverside, Winter Quarter 2022, 2023, 2024.

Environmental Scientist, AECOM, Portland, Maine, August 2014 - July 2020.

Hydrology Technician, Cape Cod National Seashore, Truro, Massachusetts, October 2013 - July 2014.

Americorps Member, Americorps Cape Cod, Barnstable County, Massachusetts, September 2013 - July 2014.

PhD, Environmental Science, University of California, Riverside, In Progress.

BA, Physics, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, 2009 - 2013.

Field Pilot Studies for Microplastics in California Waterways Designed With Fluvial Dynamics in Mind Informs Watershed Management Decisions

The alarming rate of plastic waste entering marine waterways through fluvial transport has driven the adoption of trash amendments in California (regulating plastic  > 5 mm), shed light on the ubiquity and persistence of microplastics (< 5 mm) in waterways and motivated funding for the research and management of this emerging contaminant. However, the lack of both a standardized scientific approach and under researched transport dynamics of these tiny particles inhibits informed management decisions. Therefore, there is a great need for field studies that are designed to investigate real world storage and transport dynamics of these particles.

Papers

Murphy-Hagan., C., Gray, A.B., Singh, S., Cowger, W., & Hapich, H.  (2025). Quantifying Microplastic Fluvial Flux from a Coastal Watershed—a Microplastic Rating Curve Approach [being Revised].

Murphy-Hagan., C., Gray, A.B., Singh, S., Hapich, H., Cowger, W., Seeley, M.E., & Waldschläger, K. (2025). Characterizing Microplastics in Fluvial Transport from an Urbanized Coastal Watershed—a Flow-Integrated Sampling Approach. Environmental Research, 269, 120908. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.120908

Singh, S., Gray, A.B., Murphy-Hagan, C., Hapich, H., Cowger, W., Perna, J., Le, T., Nogi, H., Badwal, B., McLaughlin, K., Kessouri, F., Moore, C., Lattin, G., Thornton Hampton, L.M., Wong, C.S., Sutula, M. (2025). Microplastic pollution in the water column and benthic sediment of the San Pedro Bay, California, USA. Environmental Research, 269, 120866. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.120866

Sherrod, H., Leong, N., Hapich, H., Gomez, F., Moore, S., Maurer, B., Coffin, S., Hampton, L. T., Hale, T., Nelson, R., Murphy-Hagan, C., Fadare, O. O., Kukkola, A., Lu, H.-C., Markley, L., & Cowger, W. (2024). One4All: An Open Source Portal to Validate and Share Microplastics Data and Beyond. Journal of Open Source Software, 9(99), 6715. https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.06715

Kotar, S., McNeish, R., Murphy-Hagan, C., Renick, V., Lee, C.-F.T., Steele, C., Lusher, A., Moore, C., Minor, E., Schroeder, J., Helm, P., Rickabaugh, K., De Frond, H., Gesulga, K., Lao, W., Munno, K., Thornton Hampton, L.M., Weisberg, S.B., Wong, C.S., Amarpuri, G., Andrews, R.C., Barnett, S.M., Christiansen, S., Cowger, W., Crampond, K., Du, F., Gray, A.B., Hankett, J., Ho, K., Jaeger, J., Lilley, C., Mai, L., Mina, O., Lee, E., Primpke, S., Singh, S., Skovly, J., Slifko, T., Sukumaran, S., van Bavel, B., Van Brocklin, J., Vollnhals, F., Wu, C., Rochman, C.M., 2022. Quantitative assessment of visual microscopy as a tool for microplastic research: Recommendations for improving methods and reporting. Chemosphere, 308(April), 136449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136449

Ruffle, B., Vedagiri, U., Bogdan, D., Maier, M., Schwach, C., & Murphy-Hagan, C. (2020). Perfluoroalkyl Substances in U.S. market basket fish and shellfish. Environmental Research, 190, 109932. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2020.109932

Ruffle, B., Henderson, J., Murphy‐Hagan, C., Kirkwood, G., Wolf, F., & Edwards, D. A. (2018). Application of probabilistic risk assessment: Evaluating remedial alternatives at the Portland Harbor Superfund Site, Portland, Oregon, USA. Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management, 14(1), 63–78. https://doi.org/10.1002/ieam.1999

Presentations

Murphy-Hagan., C., Gray, A.B., Singh, S., & Hapich, H. (2024). Insights from Field Efforts to Quantify the Fluvial Flux of Microplastics. Presented at: AGU 2024. December 11, 2024. Washington DC.

Edgington, A., Johaneman, T., Mayernik, C., Aalto, A., Alford, K., Reyes, D.A., Girón, D.A.A., Gezovich, L.J., Hahn, A., Harris, D.-A., Herrera-R, G.A., Restrepo, M.J., Murphy-Hagan, C., Peters, A., Calderon, M.R., Triantafillou, S., Wilcox, A.C. (2024). Rivers as integrators of sciences and cultures: Lessons from the 2024 Rivers of the Andes Field Training program in the Magdalena River Basin, Colombia. [Poster]. Presented at: AGU 2024. December 9, 2024. Washington DC.

Murphy-Hagan., C., Gray, A.B. (2024). Pilot Study Investigating Microplastic Flux into Upper Newport Bay, California, USA. Invited Presentation: Newport Bay Executive Committee Meeting. September 18, 2024. Irvine, CA. 

Murphy-Hagan, C., Chin, H., Fundal, A., Tran, T., Singh, S., & Gray, A.B. (2023). Investigating Microplastics in Intertidal and Subtidal Estuarine Sediments. [Poster]. Presented at: Microplastics Workshop, November 2023. Ascona, Switzerland.

Murphy-Hagan, C., Gray, A.B., & Singh, S. (2022). Establishing Microplastic Accretion Rates in a Saltmarsh Estuary: Part 1 of a Pilot Study. [Poster]  Presented at: Frontiers in Hydrology Annual Meeting. June 19-24, 2022. San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

Murphy-Hagan, C., Chin, H., Cho, T., Huynh, B., Singh, S. & Gray, A.B. (2022). Microplastics in Subtidal Sediments of Upper Newport Bay. [Poster] Presented at: Southern California Geomorphology Symposium: Climates and Landscapes Drivers Processes and Response. April 30, 2022. University of California, Irvine.