Professor Neil Holbrook is a leading expert in ocean extremes and Pacific Ocean climate dynamics. Over the past 5 years, his research has focused on developing process-based understanding and improved knowledge of the predictability of ocean and climate extremes, in particular marine heatwaves – the ocean analogue of atmospheric heatwaves that can cause devastating impacts on life in the sea. He designed and led the first global assessment of the drivers of marine heatwaves (published in Nature Communications in 2019) and was invited to lead an international Perspective piece advancing the thinking around marine heatwave processes, predictability and prediction (published in Nature Reviews Earth and Environment in 2020).