Cambridge alumni and academics have received recognition in the 2014 New Year Honours list.

Sandi Toksvig, a former member of the Footlights and presenter of BBC Radio 4's The News Quiz, has been awarded the OBE for her services to broadcasting.

Others handed honours include Antony Gormley, the sculptor best known for his Angel of the North, and former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England Paul Tucker, who have both been awarded knighthoods. Both are alumni of Trinity College.

Baroness Onora O’Neill, an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University, has been named to the Order of the Companion of Honour, an award that recognises outstanding achievement in various aspects of academic, artistic and public life. The honour has also been extended to the composer and conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, an Honorary Fellow of Homerton College.

Three professors have received CBEs: Ash Amin, professor of geography, for services to social science, David Edgar Neal, professor of surgical oncology, for services to surgery, and Juliet Elizabeth Compston, emeritus professor of bone medicine, for services to the treatment of osteoporosis. 

Georgina Joy Seddon, the co-founder and co-organiser of Welcome International Students of Cambridge, a non-profit organisation aimed at establishing relationships between international students at Cambridge and local families, has been awarded an MBE, as has Corpus Christi College alumnus Kevin McCloud, the television personality who presents Grand Designs.

Simon Parr, the Chief Constable of the Cambridgeshire Constabulary who defended police spying earlier this year, is a recipient of the Queen’s police medal.

This is the first year that the list has honoured more women than men. 51 percent of the people honoured are female; in previous years the highest proportion of women has been 47 percent.