Dr. Polly Hill joined Ipieca in September 2023 with over ten years of experience assessing and managing oil pollution risk. In the role of Senior Manager for Nature in Ipieca, she oversees the water management and marine spill working groups.
Prior to joining Ipieca, Polly managed the environmental and safety risks associated with the UK Ministry of Defence inventory of around 5,600 potentially polluting shipwrecks globally. Polly also provided support on other environmental topics, such as biofouling management of ship hulls to prevent the spread of invasive species..
Prior to managing shipwrecks, Polly trained as an oil spill responder at Oil Spill Response Ltd (OSRL), before joining the consultancy and geomatics teams at OSRL where she produced oil spill modelling reports and oil spill contingency plans. Whilst at OSRL, Polly was particularly interested in protecting the Arctic from oil spills and took part in Cold Weather Response training in Canada.
Before joining the world of oil spill response, Polly was a research scientist studying environmental impacts on marine microbial communities, mainly through ship-board research. She holds a PhD in Marine Microbial Ecology and a BSc in Marine Biology with Oceanography from the University of Southampton, and an MSc in Environmental Policy and Management from the University of Bristol.
Polly is a chartered scientist and marine scientist at the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology.