Professor Simon Pollard

Areas of expertise

• Carbon, Climate and Risk
• Environmental Policy
• Managing Corporate Sustainability
• Waste Management and Resource Efficiency

Background

An environmental engineer (Imperial College, PhD; Cranfield University, DSc) with over 170 journal publications, Simon is a leading international authority in environmental risk management, having directed institutes for Government and the Research Councils; drafted Government guidelines on environmental risk; and championed risk centres for EPSRC and NERC.

Simon has served Cranfield for over 20 years in a senior capacity as Head of Department, Dean of Faculty, as a Senate Member of Council and Pro-Vice Chancellor for the School of Water, Energy and Environment (2014-2021) and Pro-Vice-Chancellor International (2018-2024). He sat on the university’s executive for ten years and chaired Cranfield University’s health and safety and international committees. As PVC International, he led the university’s internationalisation strategy, progressed a set of strategic partnerships with international universities and developed new transnational education opportunities with Muscat (2017-22) and Jiangsu Universities (2018-). His work for the executive on responsible internationalisation led to a reset of Cranfield’s approach to academic partnerships in a changing geopolitical climate.

Research opportunities

Simon's research speaks directly to the green economy and it seeks to reconcile society's unease about pollution with the responsibilities that organisations hold for its safe management. Simon has worked extensively overseas, with visiting professorships at the University of South Australia, Jiangsu University and, most recently, the University of Salerno (2024).

Current activities

Beyond academe, Simon has been a member of the Government’s Interdepartmental Liaison Group on Risk Assessment; the joint engineering institutions’ Hazards Forum; BBSRC’s Beringer Panel; HMT’s Engineering and Interdependencies Expert Group; and he was an editor of Science of the Total Environment for 16 years. He is an active contributor to the Royal Academy of Engineering, of which he is a Fellow, and the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) where he is a Non-Executive Board member. Simon was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2020.

Clients

• Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
• Natural Environment Research Council
• Philadelphia Water Department
• Water Research Foundation (US)

Publications

• Articles in journals
• Conference papers
• Books