Queen’s Birthday Honours: knighthood for outgoing King’s principal

King’s College London principal Ed Byrne, physicist Brian Cox and author Bernardine Evaristo are among the UK-based academics recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Former Ucas chief executive Mary Curnock Cook is also among the sector leaders honoured, receiving a CBE.

Professor Byrne, who has led King’s since 2014, receives a knighthood in the list. The neuroscientist, who was vice-chancellor of Melbourne’s Monash University for five years from 2009, has said that he will step down from his current role by the end of this academic year.

Professor Cox, professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester and a presenter of science-based television programmes, receives a CBE for services to the promotion of science, while Professor Evaristo, a professor of creative writing at Brunel University of London who won the 2019 Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other is made an OBE.

There are knighthoods for several other prominent researchers: Richard Catlow, a chemistry professor at Cardiff University and UCL and vice-president of the Royal Society; Stephen Holgate, Medical Research Council clinical professor of immunopharmacology at the University of Southampton; and Roy Sambles, professor of experimental physics at the University of Exeter.

Geoff Mulgan, professor of collective intelligence, public policy and social innovation at UCL and former chief executive of innovation foundation Nesta, is also knighted.

Several leading researchers receive damehoods: Muffy Calder, vice-principal and head of the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Glasgow; Anne Marie Rafferty, professor of nursing policy at King’s College London; and Sarah Worthington, Downing professor of the laws of England at the University of Cambridge.

Many researchers receive honours for their role in the UK’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, including Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s, who is made an OBE.

Other sector leaders receiving OBEs include Miles Padgett, Kelvin chair of natural philosophy and former vice-principal for research at the University of Glasgow, and Cathy Gormley-Heenan, deputy vice-chancellor (research and external affairs) at Ulster University.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com