Oxford Skyline
The Oxford skyline.

Image credit: Nasir Hamid

New Year's Honours 2017

Members of the University have been recognised in the New Year's Honours list for 2017.

Sir Roger Bannister, CBE, former Master and Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College, is made a Companion of Honour for services to sport. Sir Roger, 87, becomes one of only 54 living people to have received the honour. He said: 'I have always been astonishingly lucky in my career, which has encompassed both sport and neurology. I never anticipated or predicted or wished particularly for a further honour but I am delighted to receive this.'

Professor Nicholas White, OBE, Professor of Tropical Medicine at Oxford and Mahidol University, Thailand, Fellow of St John's College, and Chairman of the Wellcome Trust's South East Asian Research Units, is appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for services to tropical medicine and global health. Professor White's research interests at present include the pathophysiology and treatment of severe malaria, the prevention of antimalarial drug resistance using artemisinin-based combinations, and the biology of relapse in vivax malaria.

Professor Colin Mayer, Peter Moores Professor of Management Studies and Professorial Fellow of Wadham College, is appointed CBE for services to business education and the administration of justice in the economic sphere. Professor Mayer was the first professor at the Saïd Business School and is an expert on all aspects of corporate finance, governance and taxation, the regulation of financial institutions, and the role of the corporation in contemporary society. He is also an Honorary Fellow of Oriel College and St Anne's College. Professor Mayer said: 'It's a huge honour and I'm extremely grateful. The business school has been very successful and I'm tremendously proud of it.'

Professor Valentine Cunningham, Emeritus Professor of English Language and Literature and Emeritus Fellow and Lecturer in English at Corpus Christi College, is appointed OBE for services to scholarship and the understanding of the humanities. Professor Cunningham works widely across literary-historical-cultural periods, areas and genres, as well as in literary theory, and has published books on subjects as diverse as the Victorian novel, the writing of the Spanish Civil War, and King Lear.

Professor John Furlong, Emeritus Professor of Education and Emeritus Fellow of Green Templeton College, is appointed OBE for services to research in education and government. A former Director of Oxford's Department of Education and a former President of the British Educational Research Association, Professor Furlong is a member of research groups encompassing learning and new technologies, teacher education, and professional learning.

Dr Premila Webster, Director of Public Health Education and Training, Nuffield Department of Population Health, is appointed MBE for services to public health.

Grace Clough, who is reading for an MSc in Sociology at Kellogg College, is appointed MBE for services to rowing. Ms Clough, who won gold in the LTA mixed coxed four at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, only took up rowing in late 2013. She was also a member of the LTA mixed coxed four that came first at the 2014 and 2015 World Championships.