I graduated from the University of Portsmouth in 2011 with a first class degree in Geography BSc (Hons). My dissertation was completed under the supervision of Dr Nicholas Pepin and investigated the identification and predictability of a sea breeze circulation in a region of complex topography. I went on to graduate from the University of Southampton in 2012 with a distinction in MSc Oceanography. My thesis used the GENIE Earth System Model to investigate the role of deep ocean mixing in setting atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. This work was completed under the supervision of Dr Kevin Oliver and Professor Alberto Naveira Garabato. Following this I spent 2013-2016 completing a PhD at the British Antarctic Survey, investigating paleoclimate questions using an isotope enabled climate model.

My PhD project included developing the current stable water isotope code used in the HadCM3 GCM and using the isotope-enabled model to test relevant ice core – climate change ideas. This included investigating the isotopic signature of West Antarctic Ice Sheet deglaciation during the last interglacial and whether this can be reconciled with East Antarctic ice core records (Holloway et al., 2016b). I have also evaluated the use of stable water isotopes as a proxy for past sea surface salinity by simulating the temporal variability in the salinity-isotope relationship and assessing the uncertainties in current paleosalinity methods (Holloway et al., 2016a).

I am now a postdoctoral researcher at the British Antarctic Survey, under the job title Ice Core Paleoclimatologist. My current work focusses on further development of the isotope model code to stabilize the inclusion of deuterium. My science aims include running transient isotope-enabled simulations over the recent past to compare with observational records and to further test the long-term relationship between Antarctic temperature and isotopes and how orbitally driven changes in Antarctic accumulation seasonality and Antarctic sea ice impact upon the interpretation of ice core isotopic data.

Research interests

My work focuses on using water isotope enabled climate models to understand how climate has varied during the past. Research questions include:

• What is the long-term relationship between Antarctic temperature and isotopes?
• How do orbitally driven changes in Antarctic accumulation seasonality impact upon the interpretation of ice core isotopic data?
• What is the isotopic response to a West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse?
• How are changes in Antarctic sea ice imprinted in the ice core isotopic record?

• Goursaud, S., Holloway, M., Sime, L., Wolff, E., Valdes, P., Steig, E., & Pauling, A. (2020). Global monthly outputs of orography, surface air temperature and water stable isotopes for the last interglacial for idealised Antarctic Ice Sheet simulations run by the isotope-enabled HadCM3 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/09330d14-7f2d-4c12-ad00-08a9cd1fb214

• Holloway, M. (2018). Southern Hemisphere winter sea ice concentration simulated by HadCM3 to best explain the early last interglacial Antarctic isotope peak (Version 1.0) [Data set]. Polar Data Centre, Natural Environment Research Council, UK Research & Innovation, UK. https://doi.org/10.5285/0f3d9228-2f4a-4f2c-bbe6-ee8a123db58d