New Year Honours 2016

Professor Christopher Bulstrode, Emeritus Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College, has been appointed CBE for services to humanitarian medicine. Professor Bulstrode, who was Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University and a consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the John Radcliffe Hospital and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre from 1982 until his retirement in 2010, was honoured for his work with Doctors of the World. The charity provides medical care to people affected by war, natural disasters, disease, hunger, poverty or exclusion around the world. Professor Bulstrode has worked with the organisation in a number of countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, Palestine, Sierra Leone and Ukraine. He said: ‘Getting involved in humanitarian aid work is the dream for many of us doctors and nurses. It has been an honour to be invited to join the teams set up by Doctors of the World and to contribute what I can. Certainly helping those less well off than ourselves, especially when war or disaster has struck, feels like one of the most useful thing that we can do. I do hope this award will stand as a recognition of the work of those teams, not of an individual. Sometimes the work can be dangerous. I don’t have any solutions to that. Luckily there is usually very little time to think of the risks, and it seems to me that if a job has to be done and all possible precautions have been taken, then the sooner you get on with it and finish the job, the better.’

Professor Linda McDowell, Professor of Human Geography and Fellow of St John’s College, has been appointed CBE for services to geography and higher education. She is an economic geographer interested in the connections between economic restructuring, labour market change and class and gender divisions in the United Kingdom. She has been at the forefront in the development of feminist perspectives on contemporary social and economic change, as well as in the development of feminist methodologies and pedagogic practices. She has published widely in both geographical and feminist journals and is the author or editor of numerous books, including Capital Culture (Blackwell, 1997), Gender, Identity and Place (Polity, 1999), Redundant Masculinities? (Blackwell, 2003), Hard Labour: The Forgotten Voices of Latvian Volunteer Workers (UCL Press, 2005) and Working Bodies: Interactive Service Employment and Workplace Identities (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009). Professor McDowell has a long-standing commitment to the diffusion of the social sciences and in her career to date has taught both conventional and adult students across a range of subjects, including social policy, urban and women's studies as well as geography. She is committed to encouraging students to read geography at university and is a member of the Equalities Committee at St John's College. Commenting on the honour, she said: ‘To be able to spend a career doing research into women and men's working lives has been a pleasure. In several universities I have collaborated with some inspiring scholars as well as taught a generation and more of students. This honour is for all of them as much as for me.’

Professor Keith Willett, Professor of Orthopaedic Trauma Surgery, Fellow of Wolfson College and Director for Acute Care at NHS England, has been appointed CBE for services to the NHS. An NHS consultant surgeon for 24 years, Professor Willett has a particular research interest in the care of the multiply injured patient, acetabular and pelvic fractures, fractures in the elderly, limb fracture surgery, fracture biomechanics, accident prevention and clinical outcome studies of orthopaedic trauma surgery techniques. In 2003 he established the Oxford Trauma Research Group and founded the Kadoorie Centre for Critical Care Research and Education, which focuses on the treatment of critically ill and injured patients. In 2009 he was appointed the first National Clinical Director for Trauma Care at the Department of Health and was charged with developing and implementing government policy across the NHS to radically improve the care of older people with fragility hip fractures and with establishing Regional Trauma Networks and Major Trauma Centres. As Director of Acute Care for NHS England, he now has the national medical oversight of acute NHS services ranging from pre-hospital and ambulance services, emergency departments, urgent surgery, acute medicine, children’s and maternity, armed forces, and health and justice services and national major incidents. Of his honour, he said ‘I have been enormously privileged to build a career with so many dedicated individuals and friends who are our NHS.’

Ms Fran Bennett, Senior Research and Teaching Fellow at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, has been appointed OBE for services to social science. She has a particular interest in social security policy, gender issues, and poverty, income distribution and participation. In addition to her role at Oxford, she is also an independent consultant, and has written extensively on social policy issues for the UK government, non-governmental organisations and others. She is one of the UK independent experts on social inclusion for the European Commission. Ms Bennett previously worked for the Child Poverty Action Group from 1983-93, as deputy director and then director, and in the late 1990s was policy advisor on UK and EU poverty issues for Oxfam GB. She is an active member of the Women's Budget Group. Her recent research projects include a study of the interaction between within-household inequalities and policy on tax and benefits in the UK in a project in the ESRC-funded Gender Equality Network (2002-10) and an evidence and policy review on gender and poverty written, with Professor Mary Daly, for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's anti-poverty strategies programme.

The Revd Canon Brian Mountford, Vicar of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Fellow and Chaplain of St Hilda’s College, and Honorary Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, has been appointed MBE for services to ecclesiastical history. He is interested in modern philosophy and theology, particularly questions of faith and doctrine and gives seminars on leadership and ethics in corporate life for the Said Business School and the Academy for Leadership in the Netherlands. He is the author of five books on religion, the most recent of which is Christian Atheist: Belonging Without Believing. Canon Mountford has served as Vicar of the University Church for almost thirty years. The University Church ministers to the University, the city of Oxford and 400,000 visitors a year. It attracts a wide array of speakers, who engage in debate about public theology. During Canon Mountford's tenure as Vicar, the church underwent a major two-year restoration project, which saw many enhancements made to the building, including improved access to the tower and the Clore Old Library. Canon Mountford told the Oxford Mail he was 'pleasantly surprised' by the honour. He will retire from the University Church in April 2016.