Rebecca Altman is a writer and environmental sociologist. Her work explores the social history of chemistry, plastics, pollution and environmental legacy — what we pass from one generation to the next. She earned her doctorate from Brown University and a bachelor of science degree from Bates College. Recent work has appeared in The Atlantic, UTNE Reader and Aeon Magazine. She is currently planning a book length project about plastics and is represented by Katie Grimm of New York’s Don Congdon Associates.

 

Since 2013, Rebecca has served on the Board of Directors of the Science and Environmental Health Network. SEHN is a national, non-profit think tank that supports communities, institutions and government agencies by offering the scientific insight and legal tools to implement precautionary policies that protect our health and environment, and uphold the rights of future generations to a just, livable planet. She lives outside Boston with her husband and two sons. She is an advocate for neurodiversity, dyslexia awareness, and reading aloud, and an avid (though amateur) trail-runner. When not writing, she serves as a strategic advisor to Silk Therapeutics, the green/biotech company her husband and a dear friend co-founded to replace unnecessary chemicals in skincare and textiles with clean, silk protein chemistry.