Dr Holly Astrid Nel: Biography

Dr Holly Astrid Nel is a Marine Litter Scientist at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas). With 10-years' experience and over 20 peer-reviewed publications on the topic of microplastics she supports the microplastic lab at Cefas currently being run by Dr Adil Bakir. Holly has experience in in situ microplastic detection, quantification and interpretation across aquatic environments (i.e. estuarine, freshwater and marine); which gives her the unique ability to understand how microplastics flow through catchments to the ocean. She has led a number of method development projects which look at both cost-effective tools (e.g. Nile Red) but also cutting-edge technologies. At Cefas she also looks at macrolitter especially how remotely piloted aircrafts can be used to augment manual litter assessments. Under the UK government funded Ocean Country Partnership Programme (OCPP) Holly concentrates her efforts in the African countries (South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Mozambique and Madagascar), coordinating the marine litter work.