Oxford academics recognised in Queen's Birthday Honours

Professor Charles Godfray, FRS, Hope Professor of Zoology, Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, and Fellow of Jesus College, is knighted for services to scientific research and for scientific advice to government. Sir Charles is a population biologist whose work involves ecology, evolution and epidemiology. He is also interested in the interplay of science and policy, especially in the areas of the environment and food security. His research interests include those insects such as mosquitoes which spread human diseases, how they may be controlled using modern genetic interventions, what the ecological consequences of removing them from the environment may be, and the population genetics and population dynamics involved. He is also works on food system dynamics and how one can simultaneously explore the health, environmental and economic consequences of different food system policies. With Professor Susan Jebb, he leads the Wellcome Trust's LEAP (Livestock, Environment and People) project to explore the multiple effects of meat, dairy and other 'animal-sourced foods' on food system dynamics, human health, and the environment. In the field of policy, he, with Professor Angela McLean, leads the Restatements project which aims to provide succinct summaries of the scientific evidence around highly contentious topics such as bovine tuberculosis, neonicotinoid insecticides, ecosystem manipulation to control flooding, and low dose effects of ionising radiation. He is Chair of Defra’s Science Advisory Council, a Trustee Director of Rothamsted Research and a trustee of the Food Foundation, and sits on a number of other scientific advisory committees. His previous roles include Trustee of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, President of the British Ecological Society, and Chair of the Lead Expert Group of the UK Government’s Foresight Project on the Future of Food and Farming.

Professor Simon Lovestone, MRCPsych, Professor of Translational Neuroscience, is knighted for services to neuroscience research. Sir Simon's research focuses on the regulation of tau phosphorylation, the search for genetic and other biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and, building on these, on drug discovery and experimental medicine. Underpinning all these studies is the use of informatics - clinical informatics, bioinformatics and the challenges of extracting value from very large variable datasets. He is the theme lead for informatics and digital health at the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre, a new partnership between Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust and Oxford University which aims to bring the best science to the complex problems of mental health and dementia. He is also a practising old age psychiatrist specialising in dementia detection, diagnosis and management. Professor Lovestone said: 'I am thrilled and delighted to be honoured in this way.  The past 25 years working in dementia research has been, and continues to be, the most fulfilling and rewarding experience and it has been the greatest of pleasures to work with superb scientists and students in my group and through collaboration; I am humbled by the excellence of their work and their dedication. We are making progress towards therapies and tests for Alzheimer's disease and this award only spurs me on to redouble our efforts and defeat this disease that causes so much unhappiness to so many people. I remain convinced that we will succeed; and such success cannot come soon enough.'

Professor Sir David Weatherall, FRCP, FRS, Regius Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine, Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, and Honorary Fellow of Green Templeton College, is appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire for services to medicine. Sir David is a world-leading researcher in molecular genetics, haematology, pathology and clinical medicine. His research into the most common forms of inherited anaemias (the thalassaemias) has had a major impact on their diagnosis and treatment and led to their eradication in some parts of the world. His work won him the Lasker Prize, which ranks alongside the Nobel Prize for Medicine. He has also played a key role in developing the WHO consensus for diagnosing and managing genetic disease, with a global impact.  He established the UK's first Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University in 1989. The Institute was later renamed the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in his honour on his retirement in 2000. He was Nuffield Professor of Clinical Medicine at Oxford from 1974 to 1993, when he became Regius Professor of Medicine. He was knighted in 1987.

Professor Jonathan Gershuny, FBA, Professor of Economic Sociology, Co-Director of the Centre for Time Use Research in the Department of Sociology and Senior Research Fellow of Nuffield College, is appointed CBE for services to the social sciences and sociology. His research, which focuses on how people spend their time, aims to provide new answers to pressing questions about the evolution of the balance between work and leisure and between paid and unpaid work, the implications of such changes for health and wellbeing, and how they vary by country, age, gender and possession of material resources. Professor Gershuny said: 'This award reflects a very long-term effort – I started this in 1977 – to collect nationally representative samples of diaries that I could use to estimate historical changes in work and leisure patterns across the world.  I am really pleased that the Centre for Time Use Research in Oxford University's Sociology Department is now receiving this public recognition!'

Professor Katherine Blundell, Professor of Astrophysics and Fellow of St John's College, is appointed OBE for services to astronomy and the education of young people. Professor Blundell’s research interests span a broad range of topics. She has published extensively on the evolution of active galaxies and their life cycles, on the accretion of material near black holes and the launch and propagation of relativistic jets. She is the founder of Global Jet Watch, a network of five observatories in strategic locations around the world: one each in South Africa, Chile and India and one on each side of Australia. Four of the five are sited at boarding schools where students, particularly girls, are encouraged to use the telescopes in their learning. After local bedtime at each location, she operates the telescopes remotely, over the internet, to gather more data on evolving objects in our Galaxy. Professor Blundell said: 'I'm delighted to receive this honour. It is a pleasure to thank the University of Oxford for their support throughout my career and all the other wonderful supporters of the Global Jet Watch project. This project enables unique science by providing round-the-clock astrophysical measurements of jets from black holes in our Galaxy with a network of telescopes deployed around the globe. In the process, it engages young people in developing countries into science.'

Professor Alison Etheridge, FRS, Professor of Probability at the Mathematical Institute and the Department of Statistics and Fellow of Magdalen College, is appointed OBE for services to science. Professor Etheridge's graduate work focused on functional analysis and, from there, she rapidly became interested in the interface between probability and analysis. Much of her work focuses on infinite dimensional stochastic processes and their applications. Most recently her central interest has been a collection of mathematical problems arising in population genetics.

Hilary Boulding​, Principal of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and President-Elect of Trinity College, Oxford, is appointed DBE for services to education and culture in Wales. She will take up the Presidency of Trinity College in August this year and will be the first woman to hold the position.

Generous supporters of the University are also among those honoured. The entrepreneur and philanthropist Dame Stephanie Shirley, FREng, founding donor of the Oxford Internet Institute, is appointed Companion of Honour for services to the IT industry and philanthropy. The philanthropist and industrialist Leonard Blavatnik, founding benefactor of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, is knighted for services to philanthropy. In 2010 he gave £75m to establish the School, the UK's first school of government, with a mission to inspire and support better government and public policy around the world. Bernard Taylor, DL, Deputy Steward of the University, who has served on a number of University committees past and present, is appointed CBE for services to business, education and the arts. All three are members of the Chancellor's Court of Benefactors.