Clara is from Erlangen in Germany. She completed her B.Sc. in Chemistry at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg in 2017, during which she spent an ERASMUS+ exchange at University College Dublin. She completed her M.Sc. in Chemistry with focus on Nanochemistry at University College Dublin in 2018 supported by the Intel Masters Scholarship. Following this, she worked as a researcher in Dublin City University and University College Dublin with focus on organic nanomaterials.

She completed her PhD on Advanced spectroscopy of carbon based micro- and nanoparticles in 2024 under the supervision of Prof. Susan Quinn with co-supervision by Prof. Gareth Redmond. The research was supported by a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship. During her PhD, she spent multiple research stays and closely collaborated with the Central Laser Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in the UK. She was awarded the BOC Gases Award for best PhD project in the UCD School of Chemistry in 2023 and a UCD College of Science Women in Science Mentorship Award in 2024. Her interests include nanomaterials, spectroscopy and photophysics.

She joined the De Cola group as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in 2024.