Professor Claire Halpin is a plant scientist whose research focuses on plant cell walls, particularly on understanding the biochemistry, cell biology and genetics of lignin biosynthesis. Her work has also shown how lignin can be engineered in crop biomass to both underpin food security and to facilitate agricultural and industrial processes that use biomass to make them more sustainable.
Claire is passionate about the opportunities offered by plant breeding and biotechnology for future crop improvement. She holds editorial and interest-group convening positions that promote research in engineering plant biology. She is a former recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award.
Claire did her undergraduate degree in Botany at University College Dublin and a PhD in plant cell biology at the University of Warwick. She then worked for 6 years at Zeneca Plant Sciences (now Syngenta) where she developed her keen interest in many aspects of plant biotechnology. She is now Professor of Plant Biology and Biotechnology and also currently Associate Dean of Research in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Dundee.
