Physicists named in HM The King’s Birthday Honours 2024

We’re delighted to see IOP members and supporters of physics named in HM The King’s Birthday Honours for services to physics and STEM disciplines. Their work has had a significant impact on the lives of people across the country – such as creating innovative solutions or driving real change in public life.

Congratulations to the following IOP members and members of the physics community who have been named:

• Professor Paul Howarth, Chief Executive of the National Nuclear Laboratory, has been awarded a CBE for services to the energy sector. Professor Howarth is an IOP Fellow and has had a distinguished career as one of the leading figures in the UK nuclear sector and around the global industry. Professor Howarth was a project advisor to the IOP’s Physics Powering the Green Economy report, published last year, and recently interviewed for the IOP member magazine, Physics World.
• Professor John Irvine, Professor of Chemistry at the University of St Andrews, has been awarded a CBE for services to the green economy. Professor Irvine is an IOP member and has made groundbreaking contributions to energy materials science, particularly in fuel cell and energy conversion technologies, through his interdisciplinary research spanning chemistry, materials science, physics, bioenergy, geoscience, engineering, economics, and policy. Professor Irvine was also a project advisor to Physics Powering the Green Economy.
• Professor Anne-Christine Davis, Professor of Mathematical Physics at the University of Cambridge, has been awarded an OBE for services to higher education and to scientific research. Professor Davis is an IOP Fellow and Chartered Physicist and is the first woman to be appointed professor in the Faculty of Mathematics at Cambridge.
• Professor Richard Wakeford, Professor of Epidemiology at the Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health at the University of Manchester, has been awarded an OBE for services to the advancement of the science of radiation protection. Professor Wakeford is an IOP Fellow, Chartered Scientist and a Chartered Physicist, and specialises in the epidemiology of exposure to ionising radiation, particularly as related to radiological protection.
• Professor Clive Buckberry, Co-Founder of Quanta Dialysis Technologies, has been awarded an MBE for services to medical engineering. Professor Buckberry is an IOP Fellow and a Chartered Engineer. He was part of the team awarded the 2022 MacRobert Award, the UK’s longest running and most prestigious award for UK engineering innovation, for the invention of an evolutionary portable dialysis machine that enables patients to treat themselves at home and relieves pressure on overstretched hospitals.
• Professor Karen Holford, Chief Executive and Vice-Chancellor, Cranfield University, has been made a Dame for services to engineering. Professor Holford is the first woman Vice-Chancellor at Cranfield. In 2018, she received a CBE for services to engineering and the advancement of women in engineering. Over many years Professor Holford was involved in a series of the IOP’s special interest groups.
• Professor Ian Walmsley, Provost at Imperial College London, has been awarded a CBE for services to science and to quantum technologies. Professor Walmsley led the Networked Quantum Information Technologies Hub and headed up the creation of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, a research institute to improve health through physical science innovation, at the University of Oxford. He is also one of the co-founders of ORCA Computing, a quantum computing start-up company.
• Hazel Collett, Meetings Secretary at the British Astronomical Association, has been awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire for services to astronomy.

IOP group chief executive Tom Grinyer said: “It is great to see so many from the physics community being recognised for their crucial and inspiring work in a broad and diverse range of areas: from quantum to astronomy, from the green economy to medicine. It shows just how vital physics skills, science and technology are for society and the economy. Many congratulations to all those honoured.”

View the full list of recipients.