Science Diplomacy Director and Head of Communications and External Relations, IIASA

Continuing Policy Fellow, Centre for Science and Policy

Susie leads Science Diplomacy at the International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Vienna, and heads the Communications and External Relations team. She joined IIASA after two years working on International Strategy at Imperial College London.

Previously Susie was head of the Global Research & Innovation team at DSIT (formerly BEIS, now BIST) supporting the UK research ecosystem through global collaborations, ODA and non-ODA programmes, multilateral and bilateral science diplomacy, the Science and Innovation (now Technology) Network, and HMG’s policy on research security.

Susie enjoyed a long career at the FCDO, where she served as Deputy Head of the UK Mission in Nairobi, and of the UK Mission in Dar es Salaam, and as Consul General in Boston, Massachusetts. These roles have all presented opportunities to build on science and innovation as a diplomatic soft power lever, and to use the convening power of diplomatic missions to forge and foster catalytic relationships between researchers and research institutions around the world.

Susie’s qualifications include an undergraduate degree in Human Sciences from Oxford University and an MSc in Health Promotion from The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She completed the MIT Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme as part of Team London, 2014-2016.