Claire Scott is majoring in biology and minoring in music at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She is a rising junior interested in pursuing a career in art conservation or vision research and undergraduate teaching. As a member of the biology group within the SCIART program, she will be developing a way to distinguish African elephant ivory from Asian elephant ivory. Her group will attempt to identify ivory using differences in the mitochondrial DNA of both elephant species.
Prior to this program, Claire was a Werner H. Kirsten Student Intern at the National Cancer Institute. During her year there, she used the Xenopus embryonic system to study developmental signal transduction of ephrinB2, a protein involved in cancer cell development. She also worked as an optometrist’s assistant, pre-testing patients and learning more about rare eye diseases. At UMBC, Claire is Vice President of the Biology Council of Majors, Secretary of the Women’s Ultimate Frisbee team, and a member of the Honors College. Beyond science, Claire enjoys painting, backpacking, and playing viola.