Athene read physics at Girton College, Cambridge, gaining her PhD in 1977 for research into electron microscopy of grain boundary embrittled systems. She then moved to Cornell University working as a postdoctoral associate on research into metals.
In 1981 Athene returned to Cambridge, and took up a post in Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in 1983. In 1988 she became Professor of Experimental Physics, and in 2014 became Master of Churchill College. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999.
Athene's area of research specialism is in soft matter physics, and this includes the study of soft matter in living organisms as well as organic substances such as starch and proteins. This developed from her earlier work on polymers, and includes the study of organic polymers using electron microscopy and X-ray scattering. Her research has included structural changes to biological polymers when cooked, and amyloid folding of proteins.
Athene has been and continues to be actively involved in the promotion and encouragement of women in science. She was director of WiSETI, Cambridge University's Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative, from 2006 to 2014, and the University's Gender Equality Champion from 2010 to 2014. She also chaired the Athena Forum - an organisation committed to the advancement of women in science in UK higher education - from 2009 to 2013. She has served on the Gender Balance Working Group of the European Research Council, and is a Patron of the Daphne Jackson Trust.
Athene is also an advocate for interdisciplinary research, and was the founding chair of the Institute of Physics Biological Physics Group from 2006 to 2010. She has served as a member of the Science Museum Advisory Board, and is currently chair of the Interdisciplinary Research Advisory Panel for the 2021 Research Excellence Framework.
Here is a photograph of her namesake, queen Athene:
