Liz Thomas (scientist)

Liz Thomas is a British climate scientist, specializing in paleoclimatology. Her research mainly focuses on historic climate variability in the Antarctic, and she oversees the British Antarctic Survey's work on collecting and studying ice cores.

Career

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Thomas primarily conducts research on paleoclimatology, making extensive use of ice cores to study historic climate change in the Southern Hemisphere, particularly the Antarctic[1][2][3]

After graduating from the University of Southampton, she obtained a Ph.D. in paleoclimatology through the Open University, joining the British Antarctic Survey as part of her doctoral work in the early 2000s.[4][5]

 
Bouvet Island, where Liz Thomas and her team traveled by helicopter to extract an ice core sample.

She subsequently became the director of the British Antarctic Survey's ice core group, which conducts research using ice core samples in the Arctic and Antarctic.[6][7][8]

In 2016 and 2017, she led the first-ever expedition to drill ice cores from sub-Antarctic islands, including Bouvet Island, the Balleny Islands, and Peter I Island.[7][9]

She has also conducted fieldwork in Greenland and Svalbard.[8][10]

Notably, Thomas led research to compile the first comprehensive record of snowfall in the Antarctic going back centuries,[11][12] which showed an increase in snowfall in the continent over that period.[13][14][15]

In 2019, she was the recipient of a National Geographic Explorer grant.[2][5]

References

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  1. ^ "Special Issue "Climate Variability in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere over the Last Millennia"". Geosciences. 2019. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  2. ^ a b Ingram, Simon (2020-08-05). "NatGeo Explorers Live: Ice stories with Liz Thomas". National Geographic. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  3. ^ "New study reveals increased snowfall in Antarctica over last two centuries". Phys.org. 2018-04-09. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  4. ^ "Council 2009-2010". Association of Polar Early Career Scientists. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  5. ^ a b "Liz Thomas". British Antarctic Survey. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  6. ^ "International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2020". British Antarctic Survey. 2020-02-11. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  7. ^ a b Amos, Jonathan (2018-12-14). "Climate secrets of the world's most remote island". BBC News. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  8. ^ a b Hook, Leslie (2022-03-19). "Liz Thomas: my career drilling ice cores in Antarctica". Financial Times. Retrieved 2022-07-20.
  9. ^ "Keynote Lectures". POLAR 2018. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  10. ^ "Celebrating International Day of Women & Girls in Science". British Antarctic Survey. 2019-02-11. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  11. ^ "West Antarctic coastal snow accumulation rose 30 percent during 20th century, new study finds". AGU Newsroom. 2015-11-04. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  12. ^ Amos, Jonathan (2018-04-09). "Big increase in Antarctic snowfall". BBC News. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  13. ^ Hays, Brooks (2018-04-09). "Antarctica has experienced increased snowfall over the last 200 years". UPI. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  14. ^ Coghlan, Andy (2018-04-09). "Antarctica still losing ice despite big rise in snowfall". New Scientist. Retrieved 2021-02-02.
  15. ^ Miller, Brandon (2018-04-10). "Increasing snowfall in Antarctica could reduce sea level rise, but only a bit". CNN Digital. Retrieved 2021-02-02.