Alexandra Olaya-Castro is a Colombian-born theoretical physicist, currently a Professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London.

[3] In 2008, Olaya-Castro was awarded an EPSRC Career Acceleration Fellowship hosted by University College London[4][5] where she started an independent research group investigating problems at the interface of Quantum Science and Biology.

[6] In 2016 she became the recipient of the Maxwell and Medal Prize by the Institute of Physics for her contribution to the theoretical understanding of quantum effects in biomolecules.

[7] In 2018, Olaya-Castro was promoted to full Professor at UCL[8] and in 2019 she was also appointed as the first vice-Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in the Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

In 2003, she was awarded the Arthur H Cooke Memorial Prize for distinguished work by a first year student, Department of Physics, University of Oxford.