Dr. Paul Holland - Profile
Contact Dr. Paul Holland
+44 (0)1223 221444
Biography
Research Interests
I am interested in any topic concerned with ice and/or oceans. My publications to date focus on the following topics:
Ocean-ice shelf interaction
Polar oceanography
Sea ice
Ice-shelf glaciology
Gravity currents
Lake hydrodynamics
Chronology
| 7/12 - | NERC Peer Review College |
| 8/10 - | Ocean Modeller (band 5), British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge |
| 1/09 - 9/12 | Associate Lecturer, Open University |
| 6/05 - 8/10 | Ice-Ocean Modeller (band 6), British Antarctic Survey, Cambridge |
| 2/03 - 6/05 | Post-doctoral Researcher, CPOM, University College London |
| 10/01-1/03 | Ocean Model Development Scientist, Met Office, Bracknell |
| 10/98-10/01 | Ph.D., Dept. of Mathematical Sciences, Loughborough University |
| 9/95 - 7/98 | B.Sc. Mathematics with Environmental Science, University of East Anglia (1st Class) |
Postdocs
2013-present Ruth Mugford (with Keith Nicholls, BAS, and Danny Feltham, Reading)
2013-present Sudipta Goswami (Ocean and Climate Model Manager)
2012-2013 Marius Arthun (with Keith Nicholls, BAS, and Danny Feltham, Reading)
2012-2013 Nicolas Bruneau (Ocean Model Manager)
2011-2013 Jan De Rydt (with Adrian Jenkins, BAS)
2010-present Toshi Kimura (with Adrian Jenkins, BAS, and Matt Piggott, Imperial)
2009-2012 Clare Enright (Ocean Model Manager)
Ph.D. Students
2013-present Heather Regan (with Mike Meredith, BAS, and Jenny Pike, Cardiff)
2012-present Mohamed Elmagrbi (with Matt Scase, Nottingham)
2011-present Jim Jordan (with Matt Piggott, Imperial College, and Adrian Jenkins, BAS)
2010-present Alek Petty (with Danny Feltham, University College London)
2010-present Tom Millgate (with Adrian Jenkins, BAS, and Helen Johnson, Oxford)
2008-2012 Carl Gladish (with David Holland, New York University)
Biography
I spent my formative years at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, from which I emerged in 1998 with degree in Mathematics with Environmental Science. I then proceeded to Loughborough University to do my Ph.D., submitted in 2001 with the title "Numerical Modelling of the Riverine Thermal Bar". I developed an implicit finite-volume nonhydrostatic code to study the physics and ecology of the thermal bar, a downwelling plume in lakes that arises from the existence of a freshwater temperature of maximum density. We were particularly interested in the deep-water renewal of Lake Baikal in Siberia, so I enjoyed a trip to Irkutsk as part of the project.
After that, I spent 18 months at the Met Office as a developer of the Forecasting Ocean Assimilation Model, which produced 5-day forecasts of the world's oceans using a suite of nested traditional finite-difference hydrostatic ocean models that assimilated satellite and in-situ observations in real time. Shortly before the Met Office moved to Exeter in 2003, I escaped to a postdoctoral position at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling, University College London. I worked there with Danny Feltham on simplified models of Ice Shelf Water (ISW), meltwater which flows up the base of Antarctic ice shelves. We produced a two-dimensional (depth-averaged) plume model that creaks on to this day.
This work neatly led to my current job at BAS, which I started in 2005. Despite the word 'modeller' in my job title, I identify myself primarily as a 'scientist' that likes to study oceans, ice shelves, and sea ice. Admittedly, the tools I have used the most are complex numerical models such as MITgcm, Fluidity-ICOM, MICOM, and CICE, and I also like to use simpler models to examine reduced problems. However, I have recently pursued studies that rely entirely on data from satellite and airborne surveys, and I have also participated in experiments in the cold-room down the road at DAMTP (August 2006) and in the 13m-diameter rotating tank in Grenoble (December 2006). I also joined a research cruise to the Bellingshausen Sea (February 2007), during which I wrote a blog that you might be interested in.
