HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Dame Athene Margaret Donald (née Griffith; born 15 May 1953) is a British
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
. She is Professor of
Experimental Physics Experimental physics is the category of disciplines and sub-disciplines in the field of physics that are concerned with the observation of physical phenomena and experiments. Methods vary from discipline to discipline, from simple experiments and ...
at the
University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
, and Master of
Churchill College, Cambridge Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It has a primary focus on science, engineering and technology, but still retains a strong interest in the arts and humanities. In 1958, a trust was establis ...
.Prof Dame Athene Donald, DBE, FRS
Debrett's ''People of Today''. Retrieved 7 April 2016.


Early life and education

She was born Athene Margaret Griffith in London, to Walter Griffith and Annette Marian Tylor. She was educated at Camden School for Girls and
Girton College, Cambridge Girton College is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1948, it was granted full college statu ...
. She earned a bachelor's degree in Natural Science (Theoretical Physics), followed by a PhD in 1977 for research on
electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...
of
grain boundary In materials science, a grain boundary is the interface between two grains, or crystallites, in a polycrystalline material. Grain boundaries are two-dimensional defects in the crystal structure, and tend to decrease the electrical and therma ...
embrittled systems.


Research and career

She worked at
Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
as a postdoctoral associate, where she switched working on metals to polymers, before returning to Cambridge (Department of Materials Science) in 1981 and to the
Cavendish Laboratory The Cavendish Laboratory is the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge, and is part of the School of Physical Sciences. The laboratory was opened in 1874 on the New Museums Site as a laboratory for experimental physics and is named ...
in 1983. She became Professor of Experimental Physics in 1998. Her major domain of study is soft matter physics, particularly its applications to living organisms and the relationship between structure and other properties. Her research has applied microscopy, and in particular environmental scanning electron microscopy to the study of both synthetic and biological systems, notably protein aggregation. Further details of her research can be found in the citation for the Faraday Medal she was awarded by the Institute of Physics in 2010:


Administrative work

Donald was a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge from 1981 to 2014, when she became Master of Churchill College. She was a member of the
ESPCI ParisTech ESPCI Paris (officially the École supérieure de physique et de chimie industrielles de la Ville de Paris; ''The City of Paris Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution'') is a prestigious grande école founded in 1882 by ...
scientific committee during that time. She is now an honorary fellow of Robinson College. From 2009 to 2014, she was a member of the Council of Cambridge University. She is a member of the Advisory Council of the
Campaign for Science and Engineering The Campaign for Science and Engineering (CaSE) is a non-profit organisation that is the UK's leading independent advocate for science and engineering. It focuses on arguing for more research funding, promoting a high-tech and knowledge-based e ...
, and was appointed a Trustee of the Science Museum Group from 2011-16. She has been a member of the Scientific Council of the
European Research Council The European Research Council (ERC) is a public body for funding of scientific and technological research conducted within the European Union (EU). Established by the European Commission in 2007, the ERC is composed of an independent Scientific ...
since 2013. She chaired the Scientific Advisory Council of the Department of Culture, Media and Sports from 2015 to 2017. Donald was the first chair of the Institute of Physics biological physics group from 2006 to 2010, and coordinated the writing of lecture notes in biological physics. From 2006 to 2008 and from 2012 to 2015, she was on the Council of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, and from 2010 to 2014 she chaired their education committee. For 2015–16, she was President of the
British Science Association The British Science Association (BSA) is a charity and learned society founded in 1831 to aid in the promotion and development of science. Until 2009 it was known as the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA). The current Chie ...
. As Master of Churchill College, in June 2021 Donald was involved in a dispute regarding the College's Working Group on Churchill, Race, and Empire.


Diversity work

Donald has been an outspoken champion of women in science. From 2006 to 2014 she was director of WiSETI, Cambridge University's Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative, and she was the University's first Gender Equality Champion from 2010 to 2014. 3/sup> Outside the University, she chaired the Athena Forum from 2009 to 2013, an organisation which aims to provide a strategic oversight of developments that seek to, or have proven to, advance the career progression and representation of women in science, technology, mathematics, and medicine (STEM) in UK higher education. She sat on the BIS (later BEIS) Diversity group, and serves the Equality and Diversity Board of
Sheffield University , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...
and the Gender Balance Working Group of the ERC; she is a Patron of the Daphne Jackson Trust. She regularly writes on the topic of women in science in both mainstream media, and on her personal blog. She gives many talks on this issue. She was awarded the UKRC's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011, a Suffrage Science award by the
MRC MRC may refer to Government * Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) * Medical Reserve Corps, a US network of volunteer organizations * Municipalité régionale de comté (regional county municipality), Quebec, Canada * Military Revolutionar ...
in 2013 and her portrait by Tess Barnes hangs in the Cavendish Laboratory. Donald talks about some of the issues for women in science in this video.


Awards and honours

In 1999 Donald was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
. Her nomination reads: Donald has also been awarded the following: * 1983:
Royal Society University Research Fellow __NOTOC__ The Royal Society University Research Fellowship (URF) is a research fellowship awarded to outstanding early career scientists in the United Kingdom who are judged by the Royal Society to have the potential to become leaders in their ...
(URF) * 1989: Boys Prize of the Institute of Physics. * 1994: Inducted a
Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its mot ...
* 2005: Mott Medal of the Institute of Physics. * 2006: Bakerian Lecture of the Royal Society. *2009: L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science award. *2009: Elected member of
Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of Humanities, Letters, Law, and Sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europea ...
. *2010: Appointed
Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...
(DBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours. *2010: Faraday Medal of the
Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physic ...
. *2011: UKRC Women of Outstanding Achievement's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011. *2012: Honorary Doctorate of Science from the
University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...
. *2012: Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Exeter , mottoeng = "We Follow the Light" , established = 1838 - St Luke's College1855 - Exeter School of Art1863 - Exeter School of Science 1955 - University of Exeter (received royal charter) , type = Public , ...
. *2013: Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...
. *2013: Elected Fellow of the European Academy of Science. *2014: Honorary Doctorate from Swansea University. *2014: Honorary Doctorate from UCL. *2014: Rideal Prize Lecturer of the SCI. *2015: Honorary Doctorate from Heriot Watt University. *2015: Honorary Doctorate from Manchester University. *2015: Honorary Doctorate from Liverpool University. *2016: Bradford Global Achievement Award. *2016: Honorary Doctorate from
University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...
. *2017: Honorary Doctorate from University of Bath. *2019: Lifetime Achievement Award from THE.


Personal life

Donald has been married to
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
Matthew J. Donald since 1976; the couple have two children, a son and a daughter.


References


External links

*
Royal Society profile
* Athene Donald
Athene Donald’s Blog
- Occam's Typewriter
Guardian profileThe Papers of Dame Athene Donald
held at
Churchill Archives Centre The Churchill Archives Centre (CAC) at Churchill College at the University of Cambridge is one of the largest repositories in the United Kingdom for the preservation and study of modern personal papers. It is best known for housing the papers of ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Donald, Athene 1953 births Living people British women physicists Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of Girton College, Cambridge Fellows of Robinson College, Cambridge Fellows of the American Physical Society Female Fellows of the Royal Society Place of birth missing (living people) People educated at Camden School for Girls Alumni of Girton College, Cambridge Masters of Churchill College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates 21st-century British scientists Scientists from London