Dr. Esra Billur Balcıoğlu Ilhan graduated from Ondokuz Mayıs University with a bachelor's degree in Environmental Engineering and got her master's degree in Environmental Engineering from Istanbul University (IU). She received her PhD from the Faculty of Aquatic Sciences (IU) with a thesis on oil pollution. She studied environmental chemistry and oceanography and took part in research expeditions. She changed department in 2018, and is currently affiliated with the Istanbul University Institute of Marine Sciences and Management, Department of Chemical Oceanography as an Assistant Professor, focusing on marine chemistry and chemical oceanography. She has many years of experience on the marine environment. Her interests are chemical oceanography, organic and inorganic pollutants and their interaction with marine ecosystems. She was involved as a researcher in several projects supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), as well as projects supported by the European Union, such as Policy-oriented marine Environmental Research for the Southern European Seas (PERSEUS) and COast to COast NETworks of marine protected areas (COCONET). She is also experienced in teaching, currently teaching master's and doctoral courses and supervising graduate students theses. She is continuing her academic career with studies on microplastics and other chemical pollutants in the marine environment, and aims to contribute more to the international literature.