UCL staff and alumni recognised in King’s Birthday Honours

The King’s Birthday Honours List 2023 marks the incredible public service of individuals from across the UK in a range of sectors, and this year includes a number of UCL staff, alumni and members of our wider community.

Professor Eva Sorensen (UCL Chemical Engineering) has been awarded an MBE for services to Education and Chemical Engineering. Professor Sorensen has been a valued member of UCL staff for over two decades. Her highlighted achievements include winning the UCL Faculty of Engineering Excellence in Teaching Award in 2002, becoming an ExxonMobil Teaching Fellow in 2013, winning the PROSE Award for Chemistry & Physics in 2015, as well as winning the IChemE's Frank Morton Medal in 2017 and a SEFI Fellowship Award in 2018. In 2020 she was appointed Head of the Department of Chemical Engineering, becoming the first female to hold this position since the department opened 100 years ago.

Commenting of her honour, Professor Sorensen, said: "It is a tremendous honour for me to have received an MBE, particularly as an immigrant. I have been in the UK for nearly 30 years, but only became a British citizen quite recently.

"I became an academic because I enjoy working with the sort of brilliant young people we have at UCL. Over the years, I have taken great satisfaction from seeing thousands of graduates going through our chemical engineering programmes and becoming professional engineers, working in a wide range of sectors.

"Throughout this time, I have been proud to work with the Institution of Chemical Engineers to promote the discipline. I hope that in that time I have made some contribution to the vital work that Chemical Engineers have been doing in solving some of the pressing global challenges that we are currently facing, particularly on sustainability, climate change and global health.

"I am especially indebted to the Faculty of Engineering Sciences here at UCL, which has enabled and encouraged me throughout this time and has allowed me to do the work for which I am now receiving this award."

Professor Bencie Woll (UCL Division of Psychology & Language Sciences) has been awarded an MBE for services to Higher Education and Deaf People. Bencie has pioneered research over the last forty years on the linguistics of British Sign Language and deaf studies, initially as the UK’s first Professor of Sign Language and Deaf Studies and most recently through founding and leading UCL’s Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre. The Centre’s work to examine language, cognition, and the brain from the unique perspective of deafness and deaf communication has led to discoveries about language and cognition that could not have been achieved working with hearing people alone.

George Imafidon, a UCL graduate, has been awarded an MBE for services to engineering, technology and to young people. After being awarded a First-Class MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering by UCL in 2020, George was selected to join Formula One world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton’s Commission as one of its 14 members.

George is also the co-founder and CEO of award-winning app Motivez, for which he won the Diana award in 2019, and has chaired the #AB1Million campaign to raise £1 million for the Amos Bursary to ensure opportunities for talented men of African and Caribbean to excel in education and beyond. In 2022 he won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Young Engineer of the Year and Sir George Macfarlane Medal for demonstrating excellence in the early stage of his career.

He said: “I'm honoured and grateful to receive the MBE for services to engineering, technology and young people. It's been a privilege to use my voice over the last decade for so many of us who feel unseen, opening up trajectories in STEM for communities traditionally far removed from the industry. I really hope this recognition can open more doors for those that are underserved, and goes some way to instilling hope on their journey.”

Janet Zmroczek has been awarded an MBE for services to literature and to heritage. Janet was Head of European and Americas Collections at the British Library and an external member of both the UCL European Institute’s Advisory Board and the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies Library and Information Services Committee. Until her retirement last summer, Janet served the British Library for almost 39 years and was a key figure in the delivery of the Library’s Google Books digitisation project, which began in 2011 and has to date made over 600,000 works freely available online and attract millions of views. Prior to retirement, Janet helped inform the Library’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, particularly with regard to the acquisition of research material.

Other awards to UCL alumni, former staff, honorary degree holders and other members of our community, presented in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours list include:

Janet Young CBE, (UCL Faculty of Arts & Humanities, BA 1983 and UCL Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment, BS 2000) Lately Government Head of Property Profession at the Cabinet Office, was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire for public service.

Jay Prakash Patel MBE, (UCL School of Pharmacy, MPharm 2008) Qualified Person Assessor for AstraZeneca, was made Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to public health during Covid-19.

John Raymond Camp OBE, (UCL IOE, Faculty of Education & Society, MA 2003 and Short Course 2004) Chief Executive Officer at The Compass Partnership of Schools, Royal Borough of Greenwich and Essex, was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire or services to Education.

Laura Elizabeth Marks CBE, (UCL IOE, Faculty of Education & Society, PGCE) Social Activist and Broadcaster, was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Interfaith Relations, to Holocaust and Genocide Education and Commemoration, and to Women's Empowerment.

Christopher John Hugh Jones CBE, (UCL Medical School, MBBS 1981), Deputy Chief Medical Officer for the Welsh Government was made Commanders of the Order of the British Empire for services to healthcare.

Prokar Dasgupta OBE, (UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences, MSc 1996), Foundation Professor of Surgery, King's Health Partners and Chair in Robotic Surgery and Urological Innovation at King's College London was made Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to Surgery and Science.

Dr Garry Hunt OBE, (UCL Faculty of Maths & Physical Sciences, DSc 1981), Professor and Research Scientist was made Ordinary Officer of the Civil Division of Most Excellent Order for services to Space Science and to Business.

Narinder Sagoo MBE, (UCL Bartlett School of Architecture, Grad Dip 1999), Artist and Designer was made Member of the Order of the British Empire for services to Charity. 

Ian Russell Mcewan CH, (UCL Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Honorary Doctorate 2008), Novelist and Screenwriter was made Companion of Honour for services to Literature. 

Links

• The King Birthday Honours List 2023
• Professor Eva Sorensen's academic profile
• Professor Bencie Woll’s academic profile
• George Imafidon named Young Engineer of the Year
• Inspired By: George Imafidon UCL Portico 
• Janet Zmroczek’s UCL European Institute profile

Image

• Top row: Professor Eva Sorensen, George Imafidon. Bottom row: Professor Bencie Woll, Janet Zmroczek

Media contact 

Molly Bridge

molly.bridge@ucl.ac.uk