Clara Barker

Clara Michelle Barker is a British engineer and material scientist. In 2017 she received the Points of Light award from the UK Prime Minister's Office for her volunteer work raising awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. The outcome of this was her rise as a significant role model to the LGBT+ community.

Career and research Barker completed her thesis on thin film coating at Manchester Metropolitan University. She then held a post-doctoral position at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA) in Switzerland for four years, before she moved to the University of Oxford, where she manages the Centre for Applied Superconductivity within the Materials Department. Her current research focuses on creating thin film high temperature superconductors that could be used a resonators for quantum computing devices.

Barker is currently a Daphne Jackson Trust research fellow and Dean for equality and diversity at Linacre College. She is a member of the Royal Society Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She was the vice-chair of the university's LGBT+ Advisory Group. In November 2023 she was appointed Inclusion and Diversity Representative by the Institute of Physics, taking over the position from Helen Gleeson.

LGBT+ advocacy Barker is a transgender woman and an advocate for LGBT+ diversity and women in STEM. She works with a youth group in Oxfordshire, TOPAZ. She has also spoken local schools on behalf of Stonewall and has helped Oxford City Council run an anti-HBT bullying initiative. In 2017, she was featured in a Stonewall poster campaign for Trans Day of Visibility. She has given numerous talks on LGBT+ visibility and diversity in STEM. She has also appeared on BBC Victoria Derbyshire and Sky News talking about transgender rights.

Awards and honors Barker has received several awards for her advocacy. In 2017 she was the 795th person to receive the Points of Light award for her work with Out in Oxford and her other volunteering.

In 2018, she won the staff Individual Champion/Role Model award in the Vice-Chancellor's Diversity Awards from the University of Oxford.