Alumni recognised in the Queen's New Year Honours

Seven alumni and staff of the College were honoured in the 2008 New Year Honours

Publically demonstrating an individual’s merit, service or bravery, Her Majesty The Queen bestows honours on deserving and high-achieving people from every section of the community. In the 2008 New Year’s Honours list, seven Imperial College alumni and staff were recognised for their achievements.

Dr David Barnardo (Charing Cross Hospital Medical School) was awarded an OBE for services to social care for children. He was honoured for his long-serving support of one of the UK’s most famous children’s charities, Barnardo’s, which was founded by his great, great uncle, Dr Thomas Barnardo, in the 1860s. Dr Barnardo has had a life-long association with the charity, and is currently Vice-President.

Also honoured was Sandra Caldwell (MSc Biochemistry 1972), Director of Field Operations for the Health and Safety Executive of the Department of Work and Pensions, who has been made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. Sandra oversees the many campaigns to improve factory safety that run every year, and for the last four years has been a justice of the peace at St Albans.

The honour of Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath was bestowed upon Vice Admiral Adrian Johns (Physics 1972, 1973), Second Sea Lord and Commander-in-Chief Naval Home Command, and Cancer Research UK’s Professor Sir Alexander Markham (St Mary’s Hospital Medical School 1985) was knighted for services to medicine.

A specialist in information services, Professor Martin Severs (St Mary’s Hospital Medical School 1980) was awarded an OBE for services to medicine, relating to his work approving the flow and management of information about patients. Professor Severs is Associate Dean (Clinical Practice) at the University of Portsmouth, as well as Chairman of the NHS Information Standards Board.

Imperial is also represented in the honours list by Dr Anna Thomas-Betts who receives an MBE for services to education and the community. With a background in earth sciences, she first came to Imperial as a lecturer in geophysics, but became increasingly focused on student pastoral care after being appointed a College Tutor in 1998. She now works in the College's Educational Quality Office.

Professor Brian Spratt, Division of Epidemiology, Public Health and Primary Care, was also awarded a CBE for his services to science. He has played a major role in scientific research and policy development, focusing particularly on the area of population and evolutionary biology of bacterial pathogens and molecular epidemiology. He is a member of the Ministry of Defence's Scientific Advisory Council, and in 2000 chaired the Royal Society's independent study into the health effects of depleted uranium on soldiers involved in the Gulf and Balkan conflicts.

He is now Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Imperial College, a position he has held since 2001, and became Head of the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology in 2004.