Holly is a marine scientist originally from South Africa, who has focused, for nearly a decade, on how humans affect aquatic environments. She enjoys working with researchers from across the globe which is reflected in her previous and current projects which span multiple countries. She joined Cefas in November 2021 where she now leads several pollution focused activities in various African countries. She has a demonstrated history of working in academia where she held research fellowship positions at Rhodes University, South Africa and University of Birmingham, UK from 2014 – 2017 and 2018 – 2021 respectively. Her work has largely focused on investigating microplastic source/sink dynamics within global rivers, estuaries and marine environments. She still works on multiple microplastic focused projects, however her research has expanded to include large plastic items. Specifically, projects that aim to improve the use of drones and artificial intelligence to automatically detect and categorise beach litter.