--- description: Find out why Richard Thompson is one of the 100 most influential people of 2025. title: Richard Thompson: The 100 Most Influential People of 2025 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt610146e2cceb20be/6998c5c6e2d64b3181c5f401/time100-2025-richard-thompson.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 16, 2025 # Richard Thompson by Bill McKibben  A.K.Purkiss Marine biologist Richard Thompson was out looking at barnacles in tide pools one morning in 1993 when he started noticing small pieces of plastic deposited by the tide—lots of them. Years later, he coined the word _micro­plastics,_ which helped everyone else see this new scourge too. The tiny particles have been found everywhere from clouds to the human bloodstream, but the consequences for human and environmental health are only just starting to be understood. At first he helped organize beach cleanups; others have tried to vacuum­ the stuff from the seas. But in recent years Thompson, director of the Marine Institute at the U.K.’s University of Plymouth, has been clear about what the only solution really is: as he wrote recently, “regulators, governments, and citizens all urgently need to turn off the tide of plastic pollution at its source by reducing the production of plastics.” From his [pioneering research](https://time.com/6968344/richard-thompson/ "undefined") to pushing for policy change, Thompson has been pivotal to efforts to protect the ocean, and us all. _McKibben is an author and environmentalist_ Richard Thompson Is on the 2025 TIME100 List ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273764/richard-thompson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273764/richard-thompson/"},"headline":"Richard Thompson","datePublished":"2025-04-16T10:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-03T02:28:55.308Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273764/richard-thompson/","keywords":["TIME100","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","T100innovators2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt610146e2cceb20be/6998c5c6e2d64b3181c5f401/time100-2025-richard-thompson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt610146e2cceb20be/6998c5c6e2d64b3181c5f401/time100-2025-richard-thompson.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/100-most-influential-people-2025/7273764/richard-thompson/","name":"Richard Thompson"}}]}] ```