Edith Heard

Edith Heard
CMG FRS MAE
Edith Heard CMG FRS MAE
Born	5 March 1965
Alma mater	University of Cambridge (BA); Imperial College London (PhD);
Spouse	Vincent Colot
Awards	EMBO Member (2005); Suffrage Science award (2012); L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards (2020); Member of the National Academy of Sciences (2020);
	Scientific career
Fields	Genetics; Epigenetics; X-inactivation;
Institutions	European Molecular Biology Laboratory; Collège de France; University of Cambridge; Imperial College London; Imperial Cancer Research Fund;
Thesis	Analysis of a gene amplification event in rat cells (1990)
Doctoral advisor	Mike Fried
Website	www.college-de-france.fr/chaire/edith-heard-epigenetique-et-memoire-cellulaire-chaire-statutaire

Edith Heard (born 1965) CMG, FRS, MAE is a British-French researcher in epigenetics who became CEO of the Francis Crick Institute in London, U.K. in 2025, having previously served as Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) since January 2019. She is also Professor at the Collège de France, holding the Chair of Epigenetics and Cellular Memory.

From 2010 to 2018, Heard was the Director of the Genetics and Developmental Biology department at the Curie Institute (Paris), France. Heard is noted for her studies of X-chromosome-inactivation.