Our People Cyndi Atherton Director, Science Cyndi Atherton is the director of the Science program at the Heising-Simons Foundation. Prior to joining the Foundation in 2013, Cyndi was a science program director at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, where she oversaw portfolios that included astronomy, condensed matter physics, seismology, and other physical sciences. She earned her Ph.D. in atmospheric science from the University of California, Davis, and has a master’s degree in chemical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a bachelor’s degree from Caltech in engineering and applied science. She conducted research in atmospheric chemistry and physics at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory prior to joining the Moore Foundation.