Stewart Charles McDowall is an Australia-born sustainability researcher based in the Netherlands, where he is completing a PhD at the University of Leiden. With a strong affinity for nature cultivated by life on a goat farm in the rainforest, Stewart's curiosity spans from coding and organic chemistry to backpacking adventures and paddle boarding through Dutch canals. After witnessing firsthand the scale of environmental issues in many countries, he gravitated toward Industrial Ecology to understand (and try to ameliorate) human impacts on the biosphere. Currently part of FutuRaM, a European initiative focusing on material recovery and circular economy, Stewart aims to extend this work into his PhD research. By creating an open-source tool for recycling assessments, he hopes to empower decision-makers worldwide to develop sustainable material recovery systems.