Dame Athene Donald (Girton 1971) is Master of Churchill College and was awarded both her BA (Natural Sciences and Theoretical Physics) and PhD (in Physics) by the University. After four years as a postdoctoral research associate in the USA at Cornell University, she returned to Cambridge, where she has been ever since. Initially holding an SRC fellowship in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, she moved to the Cavendish Laboratory as one of the first generation of Royal Society University Research Fellows. Her research field can best be described as soft matter and biological physics, including polymers, biopolymers and, most recently, cellular biophysics.

She has served on a variety of committees at the Royal Society, chaired its Education Committee from 2010-14 and served on its Council from 2004-6 and again from 2011 to the present. She sits on the Scientific Council of the European Research Council and has been awarded prizes by the Institute of Physics (CV Boys Prize, Mott Medal and Faraday Medal). She was appointed a Dame Commander of the British Empire for Services to Physics in 2010.