After graduating with a BA (Hons) in Geography, Moira toured Great Britain with the English Theatre as a professional actor and stage manager.

Moria was said to be an amusing and convivial friend, enjoying family time and traditional Scottish song-singing with her brother[3] Isobel Moira Dunbar passed away on 22 November 1999 in Nepean, Ontario, at the age of 81.

She joined the Joint Intelligence Bureau where her career began editing a book of Arctic terrain and sea-ice descriptions and photographs obtained by two Royal Canadian Air Force navigators, Keith Greenaway and Sidney E.

In spite of Dunbar’s extensive qualifications, she experienced gender-based discrimination; initially being unable to take part in air and sea expeditions that were usually male only events.

[1][6] She served on numerous icebreakers and spent 560 hours on Royal Canadian Air Force aircraft, studying ice formations in the High Arctic.

Dunbar and Greenway's book was the first civilian airborne geological survey of its kind and is considered essential material in the fields of Arctic and sea-ice science.

[6] She investigated icebreaking methods in the Soviet Union and Finland in 1964, and was an adviser to the Canadian Defence Research Board's Arctic hovercraft trials in 1966–1969.

[1][11] At first, the Royal Canadian Navy was against her joining for research because many members of the force claimed that they “expected [her] to go around seducing all the men or something.” Despite the assumptions made about her, Moira Dunbar worked to prove her worth through her studies and predictions of the movement of arctic ice.

[6] In 1969 Dunbar was present to observe the Arctic test of the largest icebreaker in history, the refitted tanker SS Manhattan, which would go on to become the first ship to cross the Northwest Passage.

Moira then went on to publish multiple papers involving ice conditions and polynyas[2] In 1971, Dunbar won the Meteorological Service of Canada's Centennial Award.

[1] After her passing, she chose to leave the seven acres of property she owned in Limavady, County Londonderry to the Queen’s Foundation, which to this day continues to honour her legacy as a woman in science.

[13] Academic papers and field work studies written by Moira Dunbar that display her understanding of Arctic geography as well as evidence.