Claudia R. Binder (born in Montreal) is a Swiss, Canadian and Colombian environmental scientist working in the field of human-environment systems and sustainability s. Since March 2016 she has been a full professor the La Mobilière Chair on Urban Ecology and Sustainable Living at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and founding director of the Laboratory for Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS)[1] at School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC)[2] of EPFL.

[4] From 1985 to 1996 Binder studied at ETH Zurich, first earning a degree in biochemistry and then a PhD in environmental sciences.

In 1998 she returned to ETH Zurich as a senior research scientist to study the interaction between human and environmental systems at the Institute for Natural and Social Science Interface.

[5] Binder joined École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in March 2016 and founded the Laboratory for Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems (HERUS)[1] at School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC),[2] where she also holds the La Mobilière Chair on Urban Ecology and Sustainable Living.

She examines the dynamics of urban metabolism, what characterizes a sustainable city, and what drives and hinders transformation processes.