Professor Dame Athene Donald

Dame Athene Donald is Professor of Experimental Physics at the University of Cambridge and Master of Churchill College, Cambridge.

Her research is in the field of soft matter and physics at the interface of biology and she has published over 250 papers in these fields. She is a member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council and a Trustee of the Science Museum.

She was Director of Cambridge University’s Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative, and the University’s first Gender Equality Champion. She also chaired the Athena Forum, an organisation which provides oversight of developments that seek to advance the career progression and representation of women in science, technology, mathematics, and medicine in UK higher education.

As well as various prizes from the Institute of Physics and Royal Society, she won the 2009 L’Oreal/Unesco Laureate for Europe award.