Biography
Freeman was born in March 1974 in Maryland, United States. [1] [2] Her mother is a theoretical physicist, her father trained as a chemist, and her sister is a mathematician. [3] She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, an all-girls independent school in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. [4] She studied biological sciences with biological anthropology at New College, Oxford, graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree. [4] [5] She remained at the University of Oxford, to undertake a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree in zoology. [5] [6] Her 1998 doctoral thesis was titled "Butterflies as Signal Receivers" and was supervised by Tim Guilford. [7] One of her tutors was Richard Dawkins. [3] As a postgraduate, she was a member of Linacre College, Oxford and the Department of Zoology. [7]
From 2000 to 2016, Freeman worked for the BBC, [5] within its BBC Science department and the BBC Studios Natural History Unit. [3] As a producer or director, she was involved in Walking with Beasts , Life in the Undergrowth , Bang Goes the Theory , Climate Change by Numbers and Trust Me, I'm a Doctor . [8]
In 2016, Freeman joined the University of Cambridge as executive director of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication in the Faculty of Mathematics. [9]
In 2018 Freeman proposed a new approach to scientific publishing in the form of the Octopus platform designed to publish 'smaller units of publication' and to promote the principles of open science. [10] In 2021 Octopus received a grant from Research England to develop the platform into a global service. [11]
Freeman was recommended for appointment as a non-party-political life peer by the House of Lords Appointments Commission in May 2024. [1] She had applied for the role after hearing a member of the House of Lords speak on the radio about the need for more peers who could understand scientific evidence. [12] [13] She was created Baroness Freeman of Steventon, of Abingdon in the County of Oxfordshire, on 5 June 2024, [14] and was introduced to the House of Lords on 29 July as a crossbencher. [15] [16] On 31 October 2024, she made her maiden speech in the Lords during a take-note debate on science and technology contributions to the UK economy. [3]
On 12 November 2025, it was announced that Freeman been elected the next principal of Hertford College, Oxford, replacing interim principal Pat Roche in 2026. She will be the first woman to take up the position. [17]
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