Dr Oliver Pollard

Ollie contributes to the development, maintenance and execution of Fathom’s entire hydraulic flood modeling pipeline, from model building to post-processing. He’s also involved in research projects that apply, expand and improve on state-of-the-art flood-modeling methodologies.

Drawn by its strong ties to academia and focus on research, Ollie joined Fathom as Scientific Developer in 2024. Before this, he completed his PhD at the University of Leeds where his research centered on the numerical modeling of ice-sheet driven sea-level change, with a focus on model sensitivity, uncertainty quantification and emulation. Ollie has published academic papers in high-impact journals (Pollard et al. 2023, The Cryosphere); presented his research at international conferences, including award-winning presentations at PALSEA, Singapore, and EGU, Vienna; and was awarded Early Career Scientist of the Year by his previous research department.

Ollie is not always toiling over his numerical models, however. He’s a keen runner and hiker, and loves wild camping, river swimming, and trail running – especially when it’s followed by a few pints at the pub.