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Trustees



Chairperson: Dr Claire Barlow

Claire is a direct descendent of Charles Darwin. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, and held a lectureship in the Engineering Department, researching and teaching materials and sustainability, and for many
years leading the department’s undergraduate teaching. She is Fellow Emerita at Newnham College, Cambridge, where she acts as mentor (Director of Studies) to undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Having responsibility for admissions and for helping students to manage the transition from school to university, Claire has served as Governor of a number of schools, including St Paul’s School and St Paul’s Girls School in London and currently Cambridge Waldorf School. She has always been heavily involved with outreach and public engagement activities, enjoying the challenge of communicating scientific concepts to diverse audiences. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and of the Institute of Materials.



Reverend Professor Michael Reiss

Michael J. Reiss is Professor of Science Education at the UCL Institute of Education, University College London, Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association, Visiting Professor at the Universities of York and the Royal Veterinary College, Honorary Fellow of the College of Teachers, Docent at the University of Helsinki, a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.






 


 

Karen Goldie-Morrison

A childhood passion for butterflies matured into a love of natural history, and wildlife has been the focus of her career. A degree in Zoology and a decade in wildlife publishing prepared her for running and co-owning one of the premier wildlife film companies, Oxford Scientific Films in the 1980s and 90s. She was Director of the Charles Darwin Trust from 2002 to 2012 and in  2017 she became a Trustee and its Treasurer. She was Chair of Butterfly Conservation between 2019 and 2023.









 

James Costa

James is professor of evolutionary biology and executive director of the Highlands Biological Station at Western Carolina University, USA. As a biologist his research focuses on insect ecology and social evolution, while as historian of science he has written extensively on Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and the history of evolutionary thinking. The author or editor of seven books, including most recently Darwin's Backyard: How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory (Norton, 2017), and An Alfred Russel Companion (Chicago, 2019), he has held fellowships-in-residence at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University and the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin, Germany.  In 2017 he was awarded the Wallace Medal from the London-based Alfred Russel Wallace Memorial Fund in recognition of his contributions to Wallace scholarship.




 

Emma Newall

Emma is a lecturer in science education at the UCL Institute of Education (IOE). Emma has worked with the Charles Darwin Trust since 2006, initially as a biology educator and more recently as a Trustee. She completed her doctoral studies in evolution education supported by the Trust in 2020. Her research examined the role of worldview in its most general sense in shaping attitudes to evolution and how its status as a potentially sensitive topic in school science can be better understood. This research has informed her own teaching and in particular her work with student science teachers. She is currently studying the impact of a Darwin Inspired Learning approach in Initial Teacher Education (ITE).