Robert Elliot Pollack (born September 2, 1940) is an American academic, administrator, biologist, and philosopher, who served as a long-time Professor of Biological Sciences at Columbia University.

Born in Brooklyn, Pollack earned a Bachelor of Arts in physics at Columbia College in 1961. He received a PhD in Biological Sciences from Brandeis University in 1966, and subsequently was a postdoctoral Fellow in Pathology at NYU Langone Health and the Weizmann Institute of Science. He was a senior staff scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory for nearly a decade, before becoming Associate Professor of Microbiology at Stony Brook University in 1975. He returned to Columbia University as a Professor of Biological Sciences in 1978. He served as Dean of Columbia College from 1982 to 1989. He founded the Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR) in 1999, dedicated to exploring the intersection between faith and science. He served as Director of the Columbia University University Seminars from 2011 to 2019. He retired as Director of the CSSR, later renamed to the Research Cluster on Science and Subjectivity, in 2023.

Pollack has been credited as the father of reversion therapy, for his observation that cancer cells infected with different types of viruses could revert to non-oncogenic phenotypes. Subsequently, he published nearly one hundred scientific articles related to reversion. He later became a philosopher, examining his faith with a scientific lens, and, at the same time, reinterpreting science through faith. Pollack has authored over 200 scientific articles, seven books, and dozens of speeches, mostly delivered at Columbia University.

As the first Jewish Dean of an Ivy League institution, Pollack faced significant fundraising challenges, the AIDS epidemic, and conflict surrounding the issue of South African divestment. Being a scientific activist, he was the first to raise concerns about recombinant DNA technology, which eventually led to the Asilomar Conference. He also decried the corrupting relationship between scientific academia and industry and promoted scientific literacy among the general public. He set the stage for the inclusion of science in the Columbia College Core Curriculum. He ultimately converted the Research Cluster on Science and Subjectivity to an institution promoting undergraduates, encouraging a legacy of student-centered innovation. He has collaborated with and mentored many prominent scientists, including Nancy Hopkins and Bettie Steinberg.

Robert Elliot Pollack was born on September 2, 1940, in Brooklyn, NY, growing up in the neighborhood of Seagate. His parents did not finish high school; his father ran a factory, manufacturing cardboard boxes. He attended Abraham Lincoln High School and studied at Columbia College, graduating in 1961 with a physics major. While at Columbia, he was a member of Jester Magazine and Columbia Daily Spectator. He took a freshman Core Course with Robert Belknap, whom he later succeeded as the Director of University Seminars at Columbia University. His favorite professors were Sidney Morgenbesser and Richard Neustadt, who taught philosophy and government, respectively. He worked as a laboratory assistant under the direction of Arno Penzias, then a graduate student in the lab of Charles H. Townes. Upon graduation, Pollack received a New York State Regents Teaching Fellowship to pursue graduate work at Brandeis University, examining differential expression of leucine transfer RNA in different strains of Escherichia coli following T2 or T4 virus infection.

In 1968, while working for Howard Green, Pollack published the first demonstration of reversion, a phenomenon whereby certain cancer cells demonstrated decreased growth and increased contact inhibition, thereafter being considered as reverted to a more normal non-oncogenic phenotype. Reversion was later suggested as a potential treatment for cancer. Pollack's work sparked a novel subfield of oncogenic research, elucidating the distinct mechanisms directing cell reversion.

Graduating with a PhD in Biology from Brandeis University in 1966, he spent sixteen years as a research scientist, completing postdoctoral work at both N.Y.U. Medical Center and the Weizmann Institute in Israel. He thereafter served as a senior scientist at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory from 1971 to 1975, became an Associate Professor of Biology at Stonybrook University from 1975 to 1978, and finally headed his own laboratory as a full Professor of Biology at Columbia University from 1978 to 1994.

Pollack served as Dean of Columbia College from 1982 to 1989. At the time of his appointment, the College was firmly in the Sovern era, facing a severe financial crisis, student protests related to South African divestment and concerns regarding the quality of student life, following the institution of co-education and subsequently declining admissions rates. During his tenure, he joined with the Columbia College faculty to oppose a merger with the faculties of other schools at Columbia University. Upon his resignation, he was praised for his honesty, independence, and involvement in student affairs.