The head of the University of Cambridge, the government’s chief scientific adviser and a “celebrity” scientist have been honoured by the Queen.
Alison Richard, who concludes her seven-year term as vice-chancellor of Cambridge this autumn, was appointed Dame for services to higher education in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
John Beddington, the government’s chief scientific adviser, was knighted and Brian Cox, professor of particle physics at the University of Manchester and BBC presenter, was appointed OBE.
Professor Cox said the honour was “further recognition of science”.
“I feel there is a need to take science more seriously in this country and hopefully we are beginning to turn around the public perception,” he said.
Julia Goodfellow, vice-chancellor of the University of Kent, was appointed Dame, and Rick Trainor, principal of King’s College London, was appointed honorary Knight for services to higher education, owing to his American nationality.
He said he was “greatly honoured to be recognised in this way by my adopted country”.
David Latchman, master of Birkbeck, University of London, was appointed CBE, and three professors from Imperial College London’s business school were also among those recognised at Imperial: David Gann, head of innovation and entrepreneurship, and Carol Propper, head of healthcare management, were appointed CBE; and Dorothy Griffiths, deputy principal of the school, was appointed OBE.
Athene Donald, deputy head of the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge and director of the Women in Science, Engineering and Technology Initiative, was appointed Dame for services to physics.
Among the academics to be knighted were: Marc Feldmann, professor of cellular immunology at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, London; Ian Gilmore, consultant physician and gastroenterologist, Royal Liverpool University Hospital and president, Royal College of Physicians; Colin Humphreys, director of research, department of materials science and metallurgy, University of Cambridge; Fergus Millar, emeritus professor of ancient history, University of Oxford; and Peter Rubin, chairman, General Medical Council.