Olivia van Rooijen completed her MA in Chemistry at the University of Amsterdam. Her final research project resulted in a publication in Science. After finishing her studies she joined Project Plastics, a project coordinated by the SBMK and NICAS which focused on the identification of plastics in modern and contemporary artworks and design objects. She successfully combined her studies and the project with rowing at the highest international level and competed the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Carien is an independent conservator specialised in modern and contemporary art in both the Netherlands and United Kingdom and has a studio in London. She also serves as project conservator in the sculpture and installation department for the International Loans Program at Tate. She received her postgraduate training in conservation at the University of Amsterdam and holds an MSc in Chemistry. Her research focuses on the identification of plastics used in artworks. In her work as a conservation researcher at the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum she developed a method for identifying plastics in museum collections without the use of analytical techniques. She carried this research over into her role as researcher on ‘Project Plastic’ to develop the Plastic Identification Tool and Plastic Identification Workshops.