Queen honours six MRC scientists
Six scientists from the MRC have been recognised for their achievements in the Queens Birthday Honours. CBE’s were awarded to Professor Jeanne Bell and Professor Richard Morris from Edinburgh, Professor David Armstrong from London and Professor Tumani Corrah, director of the MRC Gambia unit. Dr Andy Coward from Cambridge and Professor Adrian Davis from Manchester received OBE’s.
Professor Colin Blakemore, the chief executive of the Medical Research Council paid tribute to the scientists being honoured: “These richly-deserved honours for exceptional MRC researchers recognise their very special contributions to medical research. All of us in the MRC community send them our warmest congratulations and we all share in their pride.”
David Armstrong is Professor of Medicine and Sociology at Kings College School of Medicine and receives his CBE for services to medical research. Professor Armstrong is a medical sociologist and health services researcher with a particular interest in primary care. He is a member of the Medical Research Council and chairs the MRC’s Health Services and Public Health Research Board as well as a number of other MRC committees and working groups.
Jeanne Bell is Professor of Neuropathology at the University of Edinburgh and received her CBE for services to medicine. Professor Bell’s work includes studying the effect of HIV on the nervous system. As director & co-ordinator of the MRC HIV Brain and Tissue Bank, Professor Bell and her colleagues have drawn together clinical, neuropsychiatry, neuroimaging and pathological data and correlated these with molecular virological studies.
Tumani Corrah is director of the MRC in the Gambia and received a CBE
for services to medical research and clinical service provision in the Gambia. The award is in recognition of Professor Corrah’s long and distinguished career as a consultant physician, researcher and leader. Professor Corrah undertook one of the first trials of immunotherapy for tuberculosis in Africa.
Richard Morris is Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh and receives a CBE for his services to science. His group’s work focuses on mechanisms in memory and the better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases. Professor Morris’ group is also committed to trying to exploit advances in neuroscience to assist the development of therapies in cognition, learning and memory.
Dr Andy Coward is the former head of stable isotopes research at the MRC Human Nutrition Research Centre in Cambridge and receives an OBE for services to nutritional science. He has developed and used stable isotopic techniques in nutrition research since 1979 with a substantial amount of his research concentrated on studies in developing countries.
Adrian Davis is director of the NHS Newborn Hearing Screening Programme and the Medical Research Council Hearing and Communication Group. He receives his OBE for services to healthcare. After years of research, Professor Davis was part of the successful lobby of the Department of Health to set up the newborn hearing screening programme.
In another award, a GBE - Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire – has been given to Sir David Cooksey for public service. Sir David chaired the review of publicly funded health research which reported to the government in December.
