Dame Athene Donald is Professor of Experimental Physics at the
University of Cambridge and recently received a lifetime
achievement award in the UKRC's 2011 women
of outstanding achievement awards.
Tracey Duncombe from the Biotechnology and
Biological Sciences Research Council (BBRSC) asked her about
her achievements. Find out what Athene's advice is for aspiring
scientists.
Congratulations, you must be very proud?
Yes, it's quite an achievement. Although it feels a bit funny to
receive a lifetime achievement award whilst I'm still working, I'm
not dead yet!
Did you receive a copy of the photo? Where did you put
it?
I have a small copy which is sitting on my desk at home. I might
bring it into the office, I haven't decided.
So it goes without saying that you've had a successful
career, how did you get to where you are today?
I was a physics undergraduate at the University of Cambridge at
a time when there were very few women studying physics. At the time
I had no intentions to follow a career in physics; I just found it
really interesting.
I stayed in Cambridge to complete a PhD and then moved to the
USA as a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University where, for my
second postdoc, I moved into the polymer research field. At that
point I met and worked with Professor Ed Kramer, who was a really
inspirational person. He persuaded me that I should think about an
academic career; that's when my career really started to take
off.
After that I came back to Cambridge with my husband as he had
secured a College Fellowship. I was lucky enough to be awarded a
SERC Fellowship in the Department of Metallurgy and Materials
Science. Two years later I was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship
at the Cavendish Laboratory and then, at the age of 33, I was
offered a lectureship, the first female lecturer in the Department
of Physics. Coincidently it was around this time when I found out
that I was pregnant.
Professor Donald now researches
protein polymers
How did starting a family affect your career
decisions?
I remember Sam Edwards, a former Council member of the AFRC
(BBSRC's predecessor) who was Cavendish Professor of Physics at the
time, and another hugely inspirational character, telling me that
'intelligent women should have babies'. That really stuck with me
and encouraged me.
I was also fortunate that my husband was prepared to give up his
career to be the primary carer of our children and so I steadily
progressed, moving into food physics as part of a large AFRC-funded
project with the Institute of Food Research. My work became
increasingly focussed at the biology interface and now has included
studying proteins, polysaccharides and cellular biophysics - areas
that, at the time, were considered odd for a physicist but are now
more mainstream.
In making these decisions I was able to carve out a distinctive
position, both as a female scientist and in my chosen field.
So what's next?
I want to seize opportunities to get across the message that
science is creative and is a key part of life. Some people have
preconceived notions that science is sterile, I find this idea
quite dangerous. I also feel passionate about getting across the
notion that scientists are not a peculiar breed of people.
Science is creative!
What's the biggest piece of advice you could give to a
woman at the start of her science career?
Have courage; don't allow fears to undermine you. The indicators
are that women are more often risk-averse, less adventurous than
men, more fearful that if they attempt something new they may fall
on their faces and make a fool of themselves.
Too often individuals, not only women but perhaps more of them
than men, don't feel able to jump off the edge off the cliff
believing that their parachute really will open and let them take
flight serenely. My advice would be that constantly shivering at
the edge will itself be at least as likely, if not more so, to lead
to bad outcomes - be it disappointment, resentment or stagnation -
than taking the risk that seems so terrifying.
If we analyse each opportunity to death, do the sums
(consciously or otherwise) so that the 'play safe' option always
wins, then we are defeating ourselves.
To read the full interview, visit the
BBRSC website.
Main image (c) Cavendish
Laboratory, University of Cambridge.