Rate My Professor Celia Martin-Puertas

Dr. Celia Martin-Puertas is a Lecturer in Physical Geography and UKRI Future Leaders Research Fellow in the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. She earned her PhD in Palaeolimnology from the University of Cádiz in 2008, following an MSc in Marine Geology in 2004 and a BSc in Marine Sciences in 2002 from the same university. Her academic career at Royal Holloway began in 2016 as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellow, succeeded by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship in 2017, research associate roles from 2017 to 2021, and her current lecturing position combined with the UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship since 2022. As Group Leader, she oversees research on palaeoclimatology using annually laminated lake sediments, or varves, to reconstruct interannual to decadal climate variability over the Holocene—the last 11,700 years.

Martin-Puertas's research centers on the evolution of atmospheric circulation patterns influencing the North Atlantic and Europe, elucidating drivers of extreme events like floods and heatwaves, and the climate system's responses to forcings including solar minima, volcanic eruptions, Arctic ice melt, and greenhouse gases. Key publications include "Regional atmospheric circulation shifts induced by a grand solar minimum" (Nature Climate Change, 2012), "Dampened predictable decadal North Atlantic climate fluctuations due to ice melting" (Nature Geoscience, 2023), "The first Holocene varve chronology for the UK: Based on the integration of varve counting, radiocarbon dating and tephrostratigraphy from Diss Mere (UK)" (Quaternary Science Reviews, 2021), and "Consistent response of European summers to the latitudinal temperature gradient over the Holocene" (Nature Communications, 2025). She leads the UKRI-funded "Rethinking Palaeoclimatology for Society" project, fostering collaboration among palaeoclimatologists, meteorological organizations, and policymakers to translate palaeoclimate data into actionable climate change strategies. Her contributions extend to public engagement through Geography for Schools lectures and educational videos on global atmospheric and ocean circulation systems. With over 2,300 citations across 66 publications, her work enhances predictions of European climate futures.