Michel Claessens is a scientist and essayist. He was head of communication and external relations of the ITER project from 2011 to 2016. His background is physical chemistry (PhD) and science journalism. He joined the European Commission in 1994 where has been acting Head of the Communication Unit in the Research Directorate-General, spokesperson for research, editor-in-chief of the "research*eu" magazine and in charge of the science and technology Eurobarometers until 2010. He is now in charge of ITER policy and communication in European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy.
Michel is also teaching at the Free University of Brussels and has published a dozen of books and essays, including:
- At the Human scale - International practices in science communication (avec Donghong Cheng, Jenni Metcalfe, Bernard Schiele, Toss Gascoigne et Shi Shunke), Science Press, 2006
- Communicating European Research 2005 (M. Claessens editor), Springer, 2007
- Communicating Science in Social Contexts (edited by D. Cheng, M. Claessens, T. Gascoigne, J. Metcalfe, B. Schiele, S. Shunke), Springer, 2008
- Science communication in the world (Bernard Schiele, Michel Claessens and Shi Shunke editors), Springer, 2012
The author's TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsEoeEetmvk