Hermione Cockburn has over 20 years’ experience in teaching, broadcasting, and facilitating public engagement with science, working most recently for 10 years as the Scientific Director of Edinburgh’s science centre, Dynamic Earth, and as a trustee of the Association of Science and Discovery Centres.

She began her career in research, working on landscape evolution in Southern Africa, Australia, and Antarctica. She went on to present television and radio programmes for the BBC on subjects including bacteria, lasers, lead pollution and Scottish wildlife. In 2008, she presented an 8-part television series, Fossil Detectives, for which she wrote an accompanying book on British palaeontology.

She is passionate about empowering people with understanding and empathy for the Earth and enabling life-long learning. She was an associate lecturer with the Open University teaching environmental science for many years and continues to work with a number of organisations to support learning programmes for a range of audiences.

Hermione is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and a Fellow of the Geological Society. She was awarded an OBE for services to public engagement in science in 2020.

Hermione became a Trustee of National Museums Scotland in October 2024 and her term of appointment runs until September 2028.