Louise Sime, Author at British Antarctic Survey

Louise Sime

IDP Science Leader IMP 3

Dr. Louise Sime is a leading climate scientist at British Antarctic Survey (BAS), specialising in polar climate dynamics and the study of ice sheets, sea ice, snow, and climate across timescales ranging from seasonal to multi-millennial.

Her research focuses on using water tracers including stable water isotopes (such as deuterium and oxygen-18) in ice cores to reconstruct past climate conditions and improve understanding of the hydrological cycle in polar regions. These water tracers and isotopes provide crucial data for evaluating the accuracy of climate models, especially in predicting future polar change.

As the Science Leader of the Ice Dynamics and Paleoclimate team at BAS, and head of the Earth System Modelling group, Dr. Sime leads several large-scale international projects. She plays a key role in advancing research on abrupt climate transitions, surface fluxes in Antarctica, and the stability of ice sheets under warming conditions. Her work integrates observational data with climate models to better predict the effects of polar changes on global climate.

With over 20 years of research experience, Dr. Sime’s contributions to polar science are recognized globally, and she continues to mentor a new generation of climate researchers. She holds a PhD from the University of Sheffield and has been with BAS since 2006.

Current responsibilities for BAS:

Member of the Science Strategy Executive Group
Team leader of Ice Dynamics and Paleoclimate (IDP)
Group head of IDP Earth System Modelling

Current and Previous advertised PhD projects :

Current: Earth system dynamics during current and past warm climates. (BAS and University Cambridge – ~Jan 15th 2026)
Now filled: ARIA ECO-ICE project in Arctic sea ice thickening and tracing climate interventions (BAS and University Reading – now filled)

Current students and staff:

Dr Max Thomas, Scientist, (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Xu Zhang, Scientist, (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Alison McLaren, Scientist, (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Irene Malmierca, Scientist, (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Mr Matthew Goodwin, PhD candidate (University of Reading and British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Ms Juliana Neild, Scientist (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Ms Oliva Reeves, PhD candidate (British Antarctic Survey and University of Cambridge, UK).
Mr John Slattery, PhD candidate (British Antarctic Survey and University of Cambridge, UK).
Ms Rachel Diamond, PhD candidate (British Antarctic Survey and University of Cambridge, UK).

Previous students and staff:

Ms Huiling Zou, PhD candidate (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Ms Eliza Ziegler, PhD candidate (University of Heidelberg, Germany).
Ms Estelle Lonyem Ngoumtsa, PhD candidate (University of Bristol, UK).
Dr Rahul Sivankutty, PDRA, (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Qinggang Gao, PhD candidate (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Matthew Chadwick, PhD candidate (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Vittoria Guarino, PDRA, (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Ms Fiona Turner, PhD candidate (University of Sheffield, UK).
Dr Kira Rehfeld, DFG Research Fellow (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Max Holloway, PDRA, (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Emilie Capron, Senior scientist, (British Antarctic Survey, UK).
Dr Gisela Hiess, PDRA (British Antarctic Survey, UK).

Funding and major projects:

Principal Investigator: Reflections (RFP): Radiative Controls on Polar Tipping and Extremes in GeoMIP simulations (RADTIP) [Awaiting start, 2026-2027]
WP2 and UKESM lead: ARIA: Ecological Impact Assessment of Earth Cooling Experiments in the Arctic (Eco-ICE) [Ongoing, 2025-2029]
WP1 and Institute Lead: EU-HE: Past-to-Future: Towards fully paleo-informed future climate projections (P2F). HE-101184070 [Ongoing, 2025-2029]
Institute Lead: MBIE NZ: Antarctic Sea-Ice Switch – Preparing for New Threats: ASIS. (RSCHTRUSTVIC2448, funded by the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment, MBIE). [Ongoing, 2024-2028]
Co-Investigator. NERC Directed. Drivers and Impacts of Extreme Weather Events in Antarctica: EXTANT (NE/Y503307/1) [Ongoing, 2024-2028]
Co-Investigator. NERC National Capability Single Science (NC): UK Polar Research Expertise for Science and Society: PRESCIENT [Ongoing, 2024-2028]
Co-Investigator. NERC Directed. The Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to +2C: SWAIS2C. NE/X009386/1 [Ongoing, 2024-2028]
Co-Investigator. NERC Directed. Assessing ocean-forced, marine-terminating glacier change in Greenland during climatic warm periods and its impact on marine productivity: KANG-GLAC. NE/V006509/1 [Ongoing, 2023-2028]
Principal Investigator. NERC National Capability International. SURface FluxEs In AnTarctica: SURFEIT. NE/X009319/1. [Ongoing, 2023-2027]
Institute and ERC lead: EU DEEPICE: Understanding Deep Ice Core Proxies to Infer Past Antarctic Climate Dynamics, H2020 G.N.955750 [Completed, 2021-2025]
Modelling lead: EU ERC Grant: ANTarctic Sea Ice Evolution from a novel biological archive: ANTSIE [Completed,2020-2025]
UK and modelling lead: NZ Marsden: Roosevelt Island Climate Evolution (RICE) Project [Completed, 2020-2025]
WP2 and Institute Lead: EU-H2020: Tipping Points in the Earths System: TiPES H2020 G.N. 820970 [Completed, 2019-2024]
Co-Investigator. AHRC: research grant: Materializing Data, Embodying Climate Change. AH/S00369X/ [Completed, 2019-2022]
Co-Investigator. EU-ERC Grant: Warm Climate Stability of the West Antarctic ice sheet in the last Interglacial: WACSWAIN. [Completed, 2018-2024]
Principal Investigator. NERC Standard Grant: Retreat of Southern Hemisphere Sea Ice, 130 000 to 116 000 years BP. NE/P013279/1. [Completed, 2017-2021]
Principal Investigator. NSF-NERC Standard Grant: Paleoclimate signatures of the climate response to West Antarctic ice sheet collapse. NE/P009271/1. [Completed, 2016-2021]
Co-Investigator. Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures Grant: Reconstructing the past and predicting the future: what can ice cores tell us about climate? [Completed]
Principal Investigator. EPSRC-Feasibility Study Grant: Emulating the Isotope Response to Changes in the Geometry of the Greenland Ice Sheet. [Completed]
Co-Investigator. NERC Standard Grant: Late Quaternary changes in Westerly Winds over the Southern Ocean. NE/K004514/1. [Completed]
Principal Investigator. NERC New Investigator Grant: The Age Structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet. NE/J004804/1. [Completed]

Research interests

One of the key questions which has motivated Louise’s recent work is the question of how we can best use evidence of change during past warm climate periods to help understand and predict likely polar change over the coming centuries. Closely linked to this, she has a strong interest in how we can evaluate, and improve, our climate models over the polar regions, and recently helped formulate the CMIP FastTrack modelling protocol that explores the impacts of abrupt sea ice loss (abrupt-127k). See also https://www.pmip-interglacials.de/.