{"id":2,"date":"2010-12-09T17:19:33","date_gmt":"2010-12-09T17:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2023-01-10T20:28:08","modified_gmt":"2023-01-10T20:28:08","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am Master of Churchill College<\/a>, Cambridge and a professor emeritus of physics in the Cavendish Laboratory<\/a> at the University of Cambridge; my research was<\/a> on soft matter and biological physics<\/a>. I have a keen interest in education at all levels and wider policy for science, including around funding. I also have an active interest in issues around women in science, both within the university where I was their first Gender Equality Champion (2010-14) and also more generally (e.g. I recently served on the Athena Swan Review group).\u00a0\u00a0 I hold a variety of positions on a range of committees, but this blog is written in a purely personal capacity.<\/p>\n

My first degree and my PhD are both in Physics from Cambridge University. After I spent 4 years at Cornell University <\/a>in the USA I returned to Cambridge where I have been ever since. I became a professor in 1998 and was elected to the Royal Society <\/a>in 1999 (I currently serve on their Council, as I did previously in 2004-6 and 2012-15 and I chaired their Education Committee from 2010-14).\u00a0 I was the 2009 Laureate for Europe of the L’Oreal\/UNESCO For Women in Science Awards<\/a>, and won the Faraday Medal of the Institute of Physics in 2010. I was appointed a DBE in the 2010 Birthday Honours.<\/p>\n

As a long-time champion of interdisciplinary research, I chaired the Interdisciplinary Advisory Panel for REF2021. I am serving on a variety of Royal Society committees, including leading their Community of Interest in Research and Innovation. I have previously been a Member of the University of Cambridge’s Council (2009-14); Trustee of the Science Museum Group<\/a> (2011-16); a member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council<\/a> (2013-18) and I chaired the Scientific Advisory Council of the Department of Culture, Media and Sports (2015.-17).<\/p>\n

I am married to Matthew<\/a>, a mathematician, and have two adult children and two grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am Master of Churchill College, Cambridge and a professor emeritus of physics in the Cavendish Laboratory at the University of Cambridge; my research was on soft matter and biological physics. I have a keen interest in education at all … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/athenedonald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}