Athene Donald has won the Science and Technology award issued by the women's lifestyle publication, Glamour. In awarding the honor to Professor Donald, Glamour magazine praised her as a "great role model" and stated that "Athene has forged a real path for herself in the male-dominated world of physics."
Professor Donald is Deputy Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom as well as Director of the University of Cambridge Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative. This initiative aims to address the imbalance between the sexes when it comes to taking university courses in these areas. At Springer, she is on the Advisory Board of the European Physical Journal E: Soft Matter and Biological Physics. She has also written numerous articles in Springer's Journal of Materials Science.
Athene Donald said she hoped the honor would help inspire more young women to study science in higher education. She was quoted in the magazine as stating: "My philosophy is trying to use physics to solve problems that physicists traditionally have not solved."
Last year Professor Donald was awarded the prestigious L'Oreal UNESCO Laureate for Women in Science Award for her outstanding contribution to science. Her recent work includes the exploration of generic factors underlying neurodegenerative diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease and Alzheimer's.