Claire is the Senior Director, Programs and Explorer Development, Europe. She is the lead representative of National Geographic Society in Europe, with a remit to identify, support and grow the community of National Geographic explorers and grantees in the region. Prior to this, from 2012 -2017, she was the Director of Science for the British Council, responsible for Science and Research projects globally. After finishing her degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry at Leeds University, Claire moved into the field of Developmental Biology, completing her PhD in heart development at the Randall Institute, King’s College London, in 2000, and then working as a post-doc on neural development at the Hubrecht Institute for Developmental Biology, the Netherlands. Since then she has also worked in scientific publishing for Excerpta Medica, an Elsevier company, and as a part-time senior science policy adviser for the Royal Society, where she worked on the Pfizer-Royal Society African Academies Programme. She is a former member of the Royal Society’s Public Engagement Committee, the Advisory Board for the Institute of Latin American Studies, and the International Advisory Board of the Young Scientists Journal.