Alison Joy Downard is a New Zealand academic, and has been a full professor at the University of Canterbury since 2009.

She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, has received the R. H. Stokes Medal, and was awarded an honorary degree from the University of Rennes 1.

[2] After a PhD titled Electron transfer reactions of organometallic clusters at the University of Otago, Downard moved to the University of Southampton, followed by a two-year postdoctoral associate position at UNC Chapel Hill from 1986.

Downard's research on chemical modifications to surfaces at the nanoscale has enabled new electrodes to be discovered.

[5] The same year she was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Rennes 1.