Claire Isabel Webb directs the Future Humans program at the Berggruen Institute, where she explores the
radical scientific transformations shaping life, mind, and outer space. A historian and theorist, her work
bridges the history of biology and space exploration, speculative science, and experimental art and storytelling.
She writes and presents for popular science audiences, in academic journals and workshops, and in art
publications and performances.
Webb earned her PhD from MIT in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society (HASTS).
Her book project, Reflexive Alienation, traces how scientists have developed experimental practices to
anticipate alien life, even in the face of its enduring unknowability. As founder and director of Future
Humans, she leads projects bridging science, philosophy, technology, and art, including Próxima Kosmos,

Future Wunderkammer, and Vaster Than Empires. Since 2023, she has also been the convenor of a Berggruen
Institute workshop on the philosophy and future of consciousness.