Karlijn grew up in the Netherlands, where some of her most treasured memories are of sailing on lakes and rivers with her family. That love for the natural world stayed with her, alongside a relentless curiosity for material systems and a deep belief that nature holds the answers to our biggest challenges.
With a background spanning design, science, and engineering, she’s always been drawn to overlooked natural materials, from growing architectural structures from salt to batteries from mining waste. Today, as CIO at Notpla, she leads a multidisciplinary team developing the next generation of natural packaging from seaweed and plants that disappear as quickly as a fruit peel. It’s work that is both urgent and hopeful, demonstrating that the sea itself might hold the answer to one of its greatest threats. Since winning the Earthshot Prize, Notpla has replaced over 30 million pieces of single-use plastic.
But fighting plastic from a lab and understanding what it actually does in the world are two different things. Karlijn is joining the eXXpedition because she wants to understand the problem more deeply – how the plastics end up in different places in the ocean, how it moves through ecosystems, and what it means for marine life, human health and the climate. She hopes the experience will sharpen the solutions she develops at Notpla and beyond, and fuel the advocacy and storytelling needed to inspire real change, alongside a community of inspiring women bringing their own expertise and passion to one of the most pressing challenges of our time.
For her, the expedition is where so many things that matter come together: her deep interest for scientific research, her love for the ocean and sailing, and her work at Notpla fighting single-use plastics every day.
