“For the development of novel electron and x-ray scattering methods and their applications in soft matter physics.”

Education: Cambridge University (Ph.D. 1977) Country of residence: United Kingdom Research institution: Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Who She Is Professor Athene Donald was born in Britain and pursued both her undergraduate and graduate studies at Cambridge University, completing her doctorate degree in 1977. She then spent four years as a Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University in the US, after which she returned to Cambridge to continue her research at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University’s Department of Physics. n 1998, she was appointed Professor of Experimental Physics, and in 2003, became Deputy Head of the Department of Physics. She is also a Fellow of Robinson College at Cambridge University, a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Institute of Physics, a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, and a Fellow of the American Physical Society.  Professor Donald is also the Director of the Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative at the University of Cambridge, and the chair of the Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship panel, which was set up to help early-stage researchers with a need for flexible working conditions (for example, due to family commitments).

What She Does Athene Donald researches experimental soft condensed matter, incorporating polymer and colloidal physics, as well as biological physics. She has used microscopy techniques, X-ray scattering and neutron scattering to study polymers in their native forms and has been a leader in the development of environmental scanning electronmicroscopy for such materials.

What That Means… Through her research, Professor Donald has pioneered new techniques and laid the foundations of understanding relationships between structure, properties and processing in soft materials ranging from cement to starch. For example, she has worked closely with plant scientists and food scientists to understand the structure of starch granules, as found in wheat and corn,  and how that structure changes during plant growth, processing, hydration and cooking. These changes may affect how efficiently the human body metabolises starch – an important issue for food scientists and those involved in industrial-scale food preparation. Consequently, her research has enabled food and plant scientists to benefit from tools traditionally used only in the realm of pure physics. Professor Donald has also made important progress in understanding the structural changes that lead to aggregation of proteins, relevant to diseases like Alzheimer’s, Type II Diabetes, and B.S.E. (Mad-Cow Disease). Moreover, her studies open up exciting new possibilities for the formation of new biomaterials for bone and t issue repair. She is currently extending her research to the question of how cells adhere to surfaces, which is important for medical implants, and to the organisation of polymers in novel solar-energy devices.  In addition to her invaluable contributions to micro-structural studies, Professor Donald has worked personally to support women in science, and to increase the number of women pursuing successful scientific careers; as the first woman to have ever held a senior position at Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory, she is a wonderful role model for aspiring female scientists. Her homepage, Cambridge University http://www.bss.phy.cam.ac.uk/~amd3/ WISED Women in Science, Engineering and Design http://www.wised.org/promwom/adonald.html The Royal Society http://royalsociety.org/page.asp?id=1508 INTERVIEW – In Her Own Words Bitten by the physics bug at 13 “I knew from essentially my first physics lesson, when about 13 years old, that I wanted to study physics, and I was fortunate in having an excellent physics teacher throughout my schooling, ” says Athene Donald.  “My mother, who left school at 15, in part because of the Second World War, was determined that my sister and I should be able to attend university. No one suggested that pursuing science, and more particularly physics, was an odd thing to want to do. It wasn’t till I went to university in Cambridge that I realized that it was an unusual topic for a girl to choose.”

Teasing out the similarities between disparate topics Professor Donald’s research relates very closely to the everyday world since it deals with familiar types of materials: food, plastics, plants and so on.  “I think what appealed to me from my first lesson was that physics sets out to rationalize why the material world behaves the way it does, so that one can study one situation and gain predictive power about another,” she says. “I’ve never stayed working in any given sub-branch of soft matter physics for very long. I love the challenge of learning about new topics and of building bridges between apparently distant ones. Although I may currently do very little work on conventional plastics (the field in which I started), some of my recent work on protein aggregation draws very direct analogies with that topic, with similar structures being found in polythene bags and diseased brain tissue,”  she explains.

Seizing opportunities opens other doors Athene Donald feels tremendously fortunate to have had mentors and a very supportive husband who believed in her, even at times when she herself had doubts. They offered her challenges, opportunities and support as she moved from one topic to another.  “One thing I have learnt – though it is easier to identify with hindsight than at the time – is that seizing such opportunities often offers further openings that were completely unforeseeable, but which then bring new excitements.  “I feel that if you stay with the safe choices, your life can become very boring and you may find yourself losing enthusiasm and stuck in a rut. The things that one ends up regretting most are the chances one didn’t dare to take.”

Difficulties increase as women scientists move up  “I think the challenge of being a woman scientist in a male dominated field becomes much more apparent as one gets more senior,”  she says.  “As a bench scientist – as a graduate student or postdoctoral researcher – the emphasis is largely on the science and, unless one is unfortunate in one’s colleagues, you are judged solely by your results.  “But it appears to me that as one progresses, being different becomes more visible and significant – for instance sitting on committees as the only woman. You may react differently, sound different and approach problems from different angles to the male majority, and this can lead to appearing to be out of step and hence discounted.”

Remain true to yourself  “Follow your dreams”  is the message Athene Donald would convey to young women in science today.  “Don’t be fooled into believing that contemporaries who appear to have confidence are actually any better than you are. Don’t think it is impossible to be a scientist and a mother, though simultaneously recognizing it may be difficult and very hard work to be both. And don’t try to become someone else and lose yourself in the process.”

Tags :

• 2009 
• Athene Donald 
• electron 
• Europe 
• laureate 
• soft matter 
• x-ray scattering

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