Charlotte Hempel is a scholar of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.

After a move to the King's College London she completed first a BA (Hons) in Biblical studies (1988–1991) followed by a PhD on The Laws of the Damascus Document (1991–1994).

[1] Hempel's first academic position was at the University of Birmingham as Edward Cadbury Research Fellow (1995–1997).

She then held the position as Sutasoma Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge (1997–1999).

For the next six years she interrupted her career after starting a family and spent most of that season in the United States, where she was for a time a Fellow at the Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Maryland.