Liz Thomas

Liz Thomas is a leading ice core researcher at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and serves as a doctoral supervisor for the Cambridge NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (C-CLEAR DTP) at the University of Cambridge. She heads the BAS ice core research group, which operates specialized facilities including -25°C cold laboratories, a class-100 cleanroom, and wet chemistry laboratories essential for high-precision ice core analysis.

Her research reconstructs past climate and environmental changes over decadal to millennial timescales using chemical, isotopic, and particulate material from ice cores. Key focus areas include developing novel proxies for winds and sea ice, investigating ice sheet instability drivers, and analyzing Southern Ocean CO₂ exchange mechanisms. She examines surface mass balance contributions to sea level rise and explores Holocene ice volume changes through Antarctic Peninsula ice cores spanning 20,000 years.

Thomas leads field expeditions across Antarctica, the Arctic, and glaciated mountain regions, integrating ice shelf fracture analysis with remote sensing data. Her work on particulate material—spanning biological (diatoms, pollen), volcanic (tephra), and anthropogenic (pollutants) sources—provides critical insights into historical environmental shifts and atmospheric transport processes.

As a C-CLEAR DTP supervisor, she mentors doctoral students in collaboration with University of Cambridge departments including Earth Sciences and Geography. Her research directly supports climate modeling initiatives through reconstructions of past atmospheric circulation, sea ice extent, and marine productivity using methanesulfonic acid (MSA) and organic compound biomarkers.