Queen's Birthday Honours 2013

Andrew Dilnot, Warden of Nuffield College, is knighted for services to economics and economic policy. Sir Andrew is Chairman of the UK Statistics Authority and was the Chairman of the Commission on the Funding of Care and Support, which reported in 2011.  He was Principal of St Hugh’s College, Oxford, from 2002 to 2012 and a Pro-Vice-Chancellor of the University from 2005 to 2012. He served as Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies from 1991 to 2002, and was the founding presenter of BBC Radio 4’s series on the beauty of numbers, More or Less. Sir Andrew told the Oxford Mail that he was deeply honoured by the award and very grateful to all of his colleagues over the years.

Professor Hermione Lee, President of Wolfson College, is appointed DBE for services to literary scholarship. Dame Hermione is a renowned biographer, reviewer and broadcaster. She has written biographies of Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, and Willa Cather, and critical books on Elizabeth Bowen, Woolf, and Philip Roth. She is currently writing a biography of the twentieth-century British novelist Penelope Fitzgerald. From 1998 to 2008 she was Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature at New College, Oxford, and in 2006 was Chair of the ManBooker Prize. She said she was 'absolutely delighted and extremely surprised' by the honour.

Professor Terence Cave, Emeritus Research Fellow of St John’s College and Director of the Balzan Interdisciplinary Seminar Literature as an Object of Knowledge at the St John’s College Research Centre, is appointed CBE for services to literary scholarship.  Professor Cave was Professor of French Literature from 1989 until 2001 and has been a Fellow of St John’s College since 1972. In 2009 he was awarded the prestigious International Balzan Prize for  ‘his fundamental contributions to renaissance literature and how it was written’ and ‘for his demonstration of the much neglected concept of anagnorisis (recognition) in Aristotelian poetics as appropriate for illuminating essential moments in the history and theory of modern drama, and, much later, of the novel’. He described the award as a boost for all his colleagues.

Professor Anthony Heath, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Emeritus Fellow of Nuffield College, is appointed CBE for services to social science. Professor Heath, whose research focuses on electoral behaviour and the sociology and politics of ethnicity and nationalism, was Professor of Sociology at Oxford from 1996 to 2010. He is Co-Director of the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends and was director of the British Election Studies for 1983, 1987, 1992 and 1997.

Professor Peter Dobson, Director of the Begbroke Science Park, Professor of Engineering Science and Senior Research Fellow of The Queen’s College, is appointed OBE for services to science and engineering. He was nominated for his role as Strategic Advisor on Nanotechnology to the Research Councils in the UK. Professor Dobson’s research interests cover most aspects of nanotechnology, and embrace biotechnology, environmental technology, energy, and materials science, especially in application to medicine. His research at Oxford led to the creation of two spin-out companies, Oxonica plc, which specialises in making nanoparticles for a wide range of applications ranging from sunscreens to fuel additive catalysts and bio-labels; and Oxford Biosensors Ltd, which focused on developing technology for handheld diagnostics for life sciences applications. He said he was 'thrilled' by the honour.

Professor Alison Noble, Technikos Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Director of the Institute for Biomedical Engineering, and Fellow of St Hilda’s College, is appointed OBE for services to science and engineering. She has previously held academic positions associated with Wolfson, Oriel and St Hugh’s colleges. Her research area is biomedical image analysis, with a particular recent interest being application of machine learning to medical imaging, with application to cardiology, obstetrics and perinatal care, and microscopy.

Dr Lucy Carpenter, Emeritus Fellow of Nuffield College and former Reader in Statistical Epidemiology, is appointed MBE for services to public health in the UK and abroad. Her research interests lie in the fields of occupational epidemiology, HIV in Uganda, the associations between cancer and infectious diseases, and statistical methods in epidemiological research. She is Secretary to the Blackfriars Overseas Aid Trust.

In addition, Michael Moritz, the businessman and philanthropist who, with his wife Harriet Heyman, last year gave the University £75m to establish the Moritz-Heyman Scholarship Fund, is knighted (KBE) for services to promoting British economic interests and philanthropic work.  The gift, the largest such benefaction for undergraduate financial support in European university history, established the Moritz-Heyman Scholarship Fund, which currently supports 100 undergraduates from low-income backgrounds. Students receive £5,500 each year to cover their living costs and a substantial reduction in their tuition fees. Through its matched-funding challenge, the programme seeks to generate an unprecedented total of £300m to support UK undergraduates from lower-income backgrounds. Mr Moritz is an alumnus of Christ Church, Oxford.