She graduated Smith College in 1950, with a major in Latin American studies. Her Ph.D. from Columbia University is in public law and government, with the political science awarded by Columbia's Department of Public Law and Government. Her dissertation was entitled "American Natural Scientists in the Policy Process: Three Atomic Energy Issues and Their Foreign Policy Implications".
She was the first social scientist at ORNL, where she was director of Science in Society Studies in the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies from 1963–1966.[citation needed] In 1967, while at Oak Ride, she organized a global conference on Science and Technology in Developing Countries.
Boards and community projects
After leaving ORNL she extended her interests and became known in community activist issues relating to corporate and government policies as they affect local communities.[citation needed] She served as a chairman of the board of directors of the Council for Responsible Genetics from 1994–1996, is a trustee of Safety Systems, and was an editor for Sage Publications.
In 1996, she was involved as an incorporator of a newly formed company overseeing Winsted Memorial Hospital, named the Community Trust for Winsted Hospital.
As of 2005, she was head of the Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest. Nader is the President of the Shafeek Nader Trust for the Community Interest which seeks to advance the ability of citizens to participate and shape the quality of democracy in their community.[citation needed] According to ProPublica, the organization's tax filings for 2024 list Claire Nader as president and treasurer.
An author, in 2022, she published the book You Are Your Own Best Teacher!, about social activism and youth.
Residences
She has maintained homes in both Washington, DC and Winsted, Connecticut, her hometown. As of August 2026, she and her younger brother Ralph live in a house in Washington, DC.
Claire Nader (September 1975). "The Need and Desirability for Problem-Focused Research on The Interrelationships Between Science and Technology and Values and Ethics" April 29, 1975. Also AAAS Interdisciplinary Workshop on the Interrelationships Between Science and Technology and Ethics and Values.
Claire Nader (1976). "The Energy of Waste and the Problem of Informed Choices," in Energy and the Environment Cost-Benefit Analysis, R.A. Karam and K.Z. Morgan, eds. Energy – An International Jr. New York: Pergamon Press, pp.625–629.
Claire Nader (1977). "Comment" in Toxic Substances and Trade Secrecy, Technical Information Project, Washington, D.C., pp.63–66.
Claire Nader (June 1978). "Cultural Factors: Unresolved Issues in the Conflict Between Individual Freedom and Social Control" New York Academy of Sciences Conference on Public Control of Environmental Health Hazards.
Claire Nader and Laura Nader (1985). A Wide Angle on Regulation, in Regulatory Policy and the Social Sciences, R. Noll, ed. University of California Press, pp.141–160.
Claire Nader (2022). You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination, and Intellect of Tweens. Washington, D.C.: Essential Books, 2022.
↑Charles Barton, Milton Shaw: Part III, The Nuclear Green Revolution (blog), February 21, 2008.
↑Balancing ActArchived 2012-09-25 at the Wayback Machine (part of "The First 50 Years", a history of Oak Ridge National Laboratory), ORNL Review v. 25, numbers 3 and 4, 1992
