profile

Alex Odlum is an interdisciplinary mixed-methods researcher studying decision-making, data processes, quantification, knowledge and expertize in organizations that face ethically charged, uncertain, time- and resource-scarce environments, particularly in humanitarian crisis, disaster and extreme contexts. To investigate these topics, he deploys both quantitative and qualitative methods, including laboratory experiments, modelling and simulations, surveys, interviews, and computational text analysis. His research contributes to organization and management theory, the cognitive science of fast-and-frugal heuristics, and humanitarian studies, and is informed by prior experience working as a professional humanitarian analyst for international organizations and NGOs.

Alex holds a PhD in Management (Organizational Behavior) from the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Lausanne (HEC Lausanne), a Master of Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin, and bachelor’s degrees in Law and International Studies from the University of Adelaide. He has also worked in research, analysis, coordination and teaching roles in the humanitarian sector for organizations including the Geneva Centre of Humanitarian Studies, ACAPS, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the Mixed Migration Centre.
 

THEMATIC EXPERTISE
 

• Heuristics 
• Judgment and decision-making
• Organizational behavior and cognition
• Humanitarianism
• Ethics of quantification and knowledge production
• Microfoundations of institutions
• Disaster and extreme context management