Oscar O'Mara is a research leader at RAND Europe. He has professional experience advising government ministers in Europe across criminal justice, public health, environmental monitoring, futures thinking, and social science research.
His research has focused on innovative public health approaches to health security and addressing social and health inequalities in marginalised populations, considering air quality, wastewater monitoring, less-than-lethal weapons, sleep, and new/emerging technologies. His work has influenced policy internationally and in recent years he has been the Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor for the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service, contributing to the scientific response to COVID-19 by looking at novel approaches to identifying outbreaks using wastewater based epidemiology, excess mortality, testing approaches, and the overall response to the COVID-19 pandemic in custodial settings, including co-authoring the SAGE report on transmission in prisons.
O'Mara received his Ph.D. in criminology from the University of Nottingham.
Education
Ph.D. in criminology, University of Nottingham; Masters in public health, Nottingham Trent University; Bachelors (Hons) in social policy & administration, University of Nottingham
Concurrent Non-RAND Positions
Senior Research Fellow, University of Essex