Congratulations to the three MPLS professors, Peter Bruce, Constantin Coussios and Charlotte Deane, who have been recognised in the 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours, published today as Her Majesty celebrates her Platinum Jubilee.
Professor Peter Bruce, Wolfson Professor of Materials (Department of Materials), is appointed Knight Bachelor (Kt), in recognition of his work to develop a fundamental understanding of the properties of materials and the processes taking place in batteries, and to use this knowledge to improve performance.
Professor Bruce said: ‘I’m delighted yet also humbled to receive this honour in recognition of my research and leadership nationally and internationally. No one stands alone: I want to acknowledge the excellent students, postdocs and collaborators I have had the privilege to work with over the years. The fundamental science underpinning energy conversion and storage, to which I have dedicated my efforts, has a vital role to play in the energy transition to a low carbon society. I hope along the way I have inspired others to embrace science and its place in society.’
Professor Bruce has carried out pioneering fundamental research into lithium batteries and their materials, work that has led to patents and their commercialisation, and has also nurtured new generations of experts in batteries across academia and industry. He is a founder of the Faraday Institution, the UK's centre of excellence for battery research and has provided leadership in the physical sciences as the Physical Secretary and a Vice-President of the Royal Society.
Professor Constantin Coussios FREng is appointed as an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to Biomedical Engineering. A Fellow of Magdalen College, he was elected in 2011 as the University of Oxford’s first Statutory Chair in Biomedical Engineering, and has served as Director of the Institute of Biomedical Engineering (part of the Department of Engineering), since 2016.
Professor Coussios founded and heads the Biomedical Ultrasonics, Biotherapy and Biopharmaceuticals Laboratory (BUBBL) and serves as the Founding Director of the new Podium Analytics Institute for Youth Sports Medicine and Technology at Oxford. In 2008, working with Professor of Transplantation Peter Friend, he co-founded OrganOx Ltd., and led the engineering development of the world’s first normothermic liver perfusion device for improved organ preservation prior to transplantation, now in clinical adoption in Europe and North America. He subsequently led the engineering development of the first normothermic kidney device capable of 24-hour perfusion, currently in clinical trials in Oxford. In 2014, he was the lead academic founder of OxSonics Ltd., which exploits ultrasound and bubbles to enhance drug delivery to tumours, a technique which has recently entered clinical trials to treat patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. In 2016, he co-founded OrthoSon Ltd., which is developing a new minimally invasive technique to treat lower back pain.
Professor Coussios said: ‘No honour has ever surprised me more. I am extremely grateful to my amazing students and academic colleagues within the University, to my fantastic co-workers within OrganOx, OxSonics and OrthoSon, and to the extraordinary Oxford biomedical innovation ecosystem for enabling the generation and successful translation of new engineering and cross-disciplinary technologies from bench to bedside.’
Professor Charlotte Deane of the Department of Statistics is appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) for Services to COVID-19 research.
Professor Deane said: ‘I am absolutely delighted to receive this honour. I was very fortunate to be part of an amazing team across UKRI that worked above and beyond to ensure that the UK’s amazing research community, both academic and industrial, was able to bring its collective power to bear across all of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, from economic and cultural to social and medical.’
The Queen's Birthday Honours list recognises the achievements and service of people across the UK, from all walks of life.
Six members of staff have been recognised this year, from across the University, including The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, who has been appointed a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (DBE) in recognition of her service to Higher Education.
Read the University's full announcement.