New Years Honours for MRC Scientists
6 January 2010
The Medical Research Council congratulates the following people on their recognition in the New Year Honours list.
• Professor Janet Darbyshire CBE, for services to clinical sciences.
Janet Darbyshire is Director of the MRC Clinical Trials Unit. She has led the unit for over a decade and has played a leading role in coordinating many clinical trials, particularly in HIV infection. Since 2005 she has also been Joint Director of the NIHR (previously the UKCRN) Clinical Research Network with the remit to develop a world class infrastructure for clinical research in the NHS.
Janet said: I am delighted that my work, which depends on the work of many people in the MRC Clinical Trials Unit and our collaborators across the world, has been recognised in this way.”
• Professor Carol Dezateux CBE, for services to science.
Carol is Director of the MRC Centre of Epidemiology for Child Health, MRC Strategy Board member and Chair of the MRC’s Training and Careers Group. Carol is Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology and an honorary consultant paediatrician at the Great Ormond Street Hospital NHS Trust where she co-directs the UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre. She is also Head of the Centre for Paediatric Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Population Health Sciences at University College London Institute of Child Health.
Carol said: “I am honoured and delighted to receive this award and the recognition it gives to our scientific research for children and their parents. This has been made possible by our MRC Centre as well as by the many colleagues who have inspired and supported me over the years.”
• Professor Val Beral DBE, for services to science.
Val is an MRC grant-holder and Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit in Oxford. She has carried out epidemiological research over the past 30 years which has led to the discoveries of some causes of cancers and clarified the role of hormonal factors in breast cancer. Her work also suggested that cervical cancer and Kaposi’s sarcoma were infectious diseases before the relevant viruses were identified. In 1997 she initiated the Million Women's Study, which has since recruited more than 1.3 million women through the NHS Breast Cancer Screening Programme. Val has also served on the MRC’s Research Boards.
