Professor Dame Athene Donald

Professor Dame Athene Donald is a Professor of Experimental Physics Emerita and was Master of Churchill College from 2014-24. Her research is in the general field of soft matter and physics at the interface of biology; she has published over 250 papers in these fields. She has chaired many committees within Cambridge and beyond and has served on University Council (2009-14) and as the University Gender Equality Champion (2010-14). She also served as a member of the Scientific Council of the ERC (2013-18), as a Trustee of the Science Museum (2011-16) and Chair of REF2021 Interdisciplinary Advisory Panel. She is currently Chair of the Science Advisory Council for the Department of Education and leads the Research System Community of Interest at the Royal Society. As well as various prizes from the IOP and Royal Society, she won the 2009 L’Oreal/Unesco Laureate for Europe award. She is the author of “Not Just for the Boys: Why We Need More Women in Science” (OUP, 2023).