This year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list, which was released on Friday evening, recognised four academics from the University for their services to the country.

Professor Theresa Marteau, Director of the Behaviour and Health Research Unit and a fellow of Christ’s College, was given a damehood for her services to public health.

Marteau, who is also a fellow of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Social Sciences, works in the development and evaluation of interventions to change - particularly non-conscious - behaviours relating to diet, physical activity, tobacco use and alcohol consumption, which aims to improve public health and reduce health inequalities.

Alongside Marteau, Professor Carol Brayne, another public health expert, was awarded a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for services to public health medicine. 

A fellow of Darwin College and the director of the Cambridge Institute of Public Health, Brayne’s research focuses on dementia and brain health when ageing. As well as providing a scientific understanding of dementia, her work also looks towards policy and planning for the future and identifies risk and protective factors. Brayne is also a fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and holds leadership roles in public health at local, regional and national levels.

Professor Serena Best, from the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, was also awarded a CBE for services to Biomaterials Engineering. 

A fellow of St John’s College, Best is senior Vice President of the Institute of Materials, Mineral and Mining and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. She is also co-director of the Cambridge Centre for Medical Materials, which is developing new medical materials to interact therapeutically with the body. 

Outside of the sciences, Professor Alexandra Walsham from the Faculty of History was also made a CBE for services to history. 

A fellow of Trinity College and the British Academy, Walsham’s research focuses on the religious and cultural history of early modern Britain. Walsham has been a fellow of the Royal Historical Society for over a decade and since 2013 has also been a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.

This year over 1000 people from a wide range of fields were recognised for their services to the country in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list. Another list is also published annually to mark New Year.

A number of individuals from the wider Cambridge area also received awards in this year’s list, among them Nobel Prize winning biologist, Sir John Sulston, who studied at Cambridge and was awarded a Companion of Honour.
Notably this year all of the academics currently affiliated with the University who were recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours are female.

Professor Valerie Gibson, Physicist and Gender Champion Elect at the University, said, “This is a tremendous achievement by our senior women academics and recognises just some of the serious talent that Cambridge has to offer”.

Professor Sarah Colvin, another Gender Champion Elect, congratulated all the academics on their achievements, stressing that the the range of work being celebrated was “a good reflection of the diversity of that talent”.