Returning to research after a 6-year break, Lottie is a Quaternary palynologist and organic geochemist interested in vegetation response over episodes of global climate change on various timescales. Her current research focuses on applying compound specific carbon and hydrogen isotope analysis to reconstruct Pliocene vegetation and hydrological conditions in the Red Sea region.

Prior to her career break she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Münster and before that at MARUM (University of Bremen), where she used palynology and organic isotope geochemistry to understand past climate and environmental change in South Africa, using both marine and terrestrial Quaternary archives. She also worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oslo, again using organic isotope geochemistry, but this time to understand the causes of the elevated extinction rates during the Carnian Pluvial Event (Late Triassic).

During her PhD (The Open University) she worked as the palynologist on the ICDP Lake Bosumtwi Drilling Project and generated a 540,000 year record of vegetation change in West Africa.