Members of Oxford vaccine team, including Sarah Gilbert and Andrew Hill, among those recognised
A number of scientists involved in the UK’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic have been recognised in the Queen’s birthday honours list.
They include members of the University of Oxford team that developed the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine with the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.
Sarah Gilbert, a professor of vaccinology at the university and project leader for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, received a damehood for services to science and public health in vaccine development.
“I have worked in the development of vaccines against infectious pathogens for many years and in the last 17 months have been able to draw on all that I have learned in order to respond to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic,” she said.
“I have been so fortunate to work with a very talented and dedicated team who made it possible to develop a vaccine in less time than anyone thought possible.”
Gilbert’s colleague Andrew Hill, director of the Jenner Institute and a professor of vaccinology, was also knighted for services to science and public health.
The honour was also bestowed on Andrew Pollard, a professor of paediatric infection and immunity who led the global clinical trials of the vaccine, for services to public health.
Meanwhile, Oxford professors Peter Horby and Martin Landray, who co-led the UK Randomised Evaluation of Covid-19 therapy (RECOVERY) trial, the largest randomised controlled trial of Covid-19 treatments in the world, were both knighted for services to medical research.
NIHR scientists
A number of scientists funded by the National Institute for Health Research were also recognised for their work during the crisis.
They included Divya Chadha Manek, director of business development and marketing for the NIHR’s clinical research network, who was seconded onto the UK’s Vaccine Taskforce in May 2020. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to government during the Covid-19 response.
Hywel Williams, the former director of the NIHR’s health technology assessment programme, who worked as an adviser to a number of funding and oversight groups set up to help manage the Covid-19 research response, also received an OBE for services to higher education and medical research.
Meanwhile, Mike Thompson, who served as chief executive of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry between 2016-19, received an OBE for services to medicines supply resilience and development following his work during the Brexit negotiations.