The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, is appointed a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in recognition of her service to Higher Education. The citation for Professor Richardson’s Damehood highlights her key roles in attracting more undergraduates from non-traditional or deprived backgrounds to Oxford, and in securing the deal with AstraZeneca for the production and roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine developed at Oxford. The story is featured on the University of Oxford website
Academics from across the Medical Sciences Division have also been recognised in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours List.
Professor Fiona Powrie
Professor Fiona Powrie FRS, Professor of Musculoskeletal Sciences (Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology & Musculoskeletal Sciences) and Director of the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, is appointed Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE), for services to Medical Science. Professor Powrie has made major contributions to our understanding of the immune system. Her early work provided very important support for the existence of regulatory T lymphocytes, adding very strong data so that it is now universally accepted. Turning her attention to the gut she has been a leader in working out how the bacterial content interacts with the immune system. Her scientific contribution is unique and has been transformational to our understanding of how the gut bacteria and the immune system interact. She has taken this basic research in a translational direction and with her clinical colleagues is actively applying her discoveries to the management of inflammatory bowel disease. Her work has implications for bowel cancer. She has emerged as a very strong scientific leader and inspirational role model for the many young women beginning careers in biomedical science. She was appointed a Governor of the Wellcome Trust in 2018 becoming Deputy Chair in 2022.
Read more about Professor Fiona Powrie's DBE award
Dr Nikita Ved
Dr Nikita Ved of Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics (DPAG) is appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, Dr Ved is recognised for her vaccine outreach work as part of The 1928 Institute, an official Oxford spin out which she co-founded. The 1928 Institute was established in 2020 as a think-tank and continuation of the original India League (est. 1928). The not-for-profit is designed to research and represent British Indians, provide analysis on the emerging events in the Indian Sub-continent and within its diaspora, and be a platform for dialogue for the diaspora with the aim of disrupting ‘echo-chambers’.
Read more about Dr Nikita Ved's MBE award
Professor Sir David Warrell
Professor Sir David Warrell, Emeritus Professor of Tropical Medicine, Nuffield Department of Medicine, is appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to global health research and clinical practice. Professor Warrell was the founding director of the Mahidol Oxford Research Unit in Thailand, part of the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health in Oxford, and its international Tropical Medicine Research network. Over the last 50 years, Professor Warrell has worked in Africa, Asia, Oceania and Latin America. His research interests included respiratory diseases, relapsing fever, rabies, malaria, and venomous and poisonous plants and animals.
Read more about Professor Sir David Warrell's award
Professor Kathryn Maitland
Professor Kathryn Maitland, Professor of Paediatric Tropical Infectious Diseases (Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health, Nuffield Department of Medicine) and based at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya, is appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). Professor Maitland is a paediatrician and infectious disease researcher who has dedicated her career to clinical research in critically ill children, including studying the impacts of malaria, bacterial sepsis and severe malnutrition with aim of improving mortality from these conditions. Based in East Africa for over 22 years, Professor Maitland’s work has largely focused on assessing and improving techniques used in the emergency care of children in resource-limited hospitals in sub-Saharan Africa.
Read more about Professor Kathryn Maitland's OBE award.
Professor Constantin Coussios
Professor Constantin Coussios FREng is appointed as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to Biomedical Engineering. A Fellow of Magdalen College, he was elected in 2011 as the University of Oxford’s first Statutory Chair in Biomedical Engineering, and has served as Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (part of the Department of Engineering and a close working partner of Medical Sciences Division), since 2016.
Read more about Professor Constantin Coussios's OBE award
Congratulations to all our academics recognised in the Queen's Birthday Honours.