Professor Alison Etheridge DBE FRS, Professor of Probability at Oxford’s Department of Statistics, has been appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to Mathematical Sciences. Much of her work focuses on infinite dimensional stochastic processes and their applications. Most recently her central interest has been a collection of mathematical problems arising in population genetics.
Professor Etheridge said: ‘This really is a huge honour and it’s taking a while to sink in. It has made me appreciate how lucky I have been to have the support of family, friends, students, and colleagues in and beyond Oxford. And of course, it has been a huge privilege to spend so much of my career in the University of Oxford.’
Professor Nandini Das OBE, Professor of Early Modern English Literature and Culture in the Faculty of English and Tutorial Fellow in English at Exeter College, has been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities and to Public Engagement.
Professor Das’ works on early modern literature, prose-fiction (chivalric romance, in particular), travel, migration, and cross-cultural encounters, and has published widely on these topics, from their appearance in the writings of major sixteenth and seventeenth century authors such as Philip Sidney, Shakespeare and Cervantes, to the fleeting presence of three Japanese boys in sixteenth century Portuguese-held Goa, India.
Professor Das said: ‘The arts and humanities are facing unprecedented challenges today. A record number of departments in the university sector are closing, and funding is being slashed. Around us, the future of our students and colleagues is in jeopardy, and critical scholarship and creative thinking are under threat. In a time of endless crises, when no choice is an easy choice, these fields are often seen as luxuries, their value quantified and questioned in favour of more ‘practical’ disciplines – ironically dooming the former to become the possession of a privileged few. And at the same time, the broader value of research, education, and human inquiry itself is being asked repeatedly to justify (and indeed, defend) itself in the current climate. Yet if this trend continues, we risk both the ability to understand ourselves, and the capacity to imagine and shape our future. In this context, the main value of this honour at this moment for me is that it is a recognition of the importance of these disciplines, and of research in general. Without them, we risk losing the very ability to ask why we matter, what it means to be human, and what it means to be a part of the planet we occupy.’
Paul Chapman OBE, Senior Fellow in Operations Management at the Saïd Business School, Oxford, has been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Project Delivery.
Paul Chapman
Paul Chapman is a leading expert on the learning and development of executives, especially those responsible for leading the delivery of major programmes/major projects typically valued at more than $1billion.
Paul is Academy Director for the UK Government’s ‘Major Project Leadership Academy,’ MPLA, a one-year, part-time programme for the Major Project Leaders responsible for delivering the UK Central Government’s portfolio strategic projects valued at over £440bn. In this role he also designed and directs the ‘Sponsoring Major Projects’ programme for UK Government Ministers.
Paul said: ‘Over the past decade the importance of the project delivery profession has come to be recognised in the UK and internationally. I am delighted therefore that this award acknowledges the contribution of a community of researchers, educators, professionals and practitioners in improving our collective ability to deliver social and economic benefits through effective project delivery. All we have achieved results from this inspiring teamwork.
‘On a personal note, I wish to thank my family, friends and colleagues throughout my career for their generous and unwavering support, and beg their continued indulgence for what lies ahead.’
Professor Ros Rickaby FRS OBE, Professor of Biogeochemistry at the Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford, Chair of Geology at Oxford Earth Sciences, and a Professorial Fellow at University College, Oxford, is appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Biogeochemistry.
Professor Rickaby joined the University of Oxford in 2002 and has been a Professor of Biogeochemistry since 2010. For the past 30 years, her research has utilised the past co-evolution of life, environmental chemistry, and Earth’s climate to inform predictions of future change. Her passion for the natural world has been an enduring theme of her work; she has spent time on various conservation projects across Europe, and during her time at Harvard she volunteered a penguin carer in the Boston Aquarium. She has been recognised with prestigious medals from the European Geosciences Union, American Geophysical Union, and the Geological Society of London, and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2022.
Professor Rickaby said: ‘I am absolutely gobsmacked, humbled and hugely grateful to receive this recognition from His Royal Highness, King Charles. It has been truly a thrill to uncover the power of the plankton in maintaining a habitable Earth, and to appreciate the importance of planetary-scale thinking for plotting forward pathways. All of my research, and indeed my life, has flourished through the support of, and interactions with brilliant older and younger minds from across the world. I hope that the entire team can share in a warm swell of pride as we continue the push towards a sustainable future.’
Paul Roberts OBE, Archaeologist and Keeper of the Department of Antiquities at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, has been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Archaeology and to Heritage.
Paul Roberts is also a governing body Fellow at Wolfson College. Formerly, he was Roman Curator (1994-2007) and Senior Roman Curator (2007-2015) in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, London, where he curated the exhibition Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum (2013).
Professor Steve Strand
Professor Steve Strand OBE, Professor of Education in the Department of Education, Oxford, and Fellow of St. Cross College, has been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Equality and to Human Rights.
Professor Strand has been Professor of Education at the University of Oxford since January 2013. His research interests are in ethnic, social class and gender gaps in a wide range of educational outcomes (e.g. achievement, progress, special education, exclusion) and he is particularly interested in the interface between equity and school effectiveness. He has worked extensively with Government departments, Local Authorities and individual schools on the analysis of pupil achievement data and school effectiveness.
Professor Strand said: ‘I am very grateful to be awarded this honour, which recognises the importance of equity in educational achievement as a key element in developing a fairer and more just society.’
Professor Nigel Biggar CBE, Regius Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, has been nominated for a peerage. He is to be styled the Lord Biggar, of Castle Douglas in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright.
Professor Nigel Biggar
Professor Biggar said: ‘The grant of a peerage marks the culmination of a forty-year journey through academe and the church into British public life. I am deeply grateful to have lived to see the day, and to have the opportunity to contribute my ethical expertise to Parliament’s deliberations and the Conservative Party’s intellectual renewal.’
“The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s second-oldest university in continuous operation.”
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