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Birthday Honours List 2023 - High Awards (HTML)

Published 16 June 2023

COMPANION OF HONOUR

SIR JOHN IRVING BELL GBE FRS FREng

He returned to Oxford in 1987 and became Regius Professor of Medicine in 2002. He has transformed the University’s research and innovation ecosystem enabling billions of pounds of investment in research programmes, equipment, major building projects, land purchases. He is broadly admired across the world as an energetic force operating across academia, philanthropists, industry and Whitehall, working with great dedication to communicate key scientific ideas, translate them to practical applications and identify key enablers to implementation. The development of the Oxford/Astra-Zeneca Vaccine would not have been possible without his vision to build vaccines research in Oxford over the last 30 years. During the Covid-19 pandemic he dedicated countless hours assisting the UK with strategies for developing and rolling out vaccines, understanding emerging immunology and developing national testing programmes.

IAN RUSSELL McEWAN CBE

His first published work was a collection of short stories, First Love, Last Rites (1975), which won the Somerset Maugham Award in 1976. In 1998 he was awarded the Booker Prize for his novel Amsterdam. His next novel, Atonement, also received considerable acclaim. His novel Saturday won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 2005. Many of his novels have been adapted for film including First Love, Last Rites (1997); The Cement Garden (1993); The Comfort of Strangers (1991), for which Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay; Enduring Love (2004) and Atonement (2007). One of his most acclaimed novels, On Chesil Beach, won the British Book Awards Book of the Year and Author of the Year Awards in 2008. He has also written a number of screenplays, children’s fiction, and an oratorio. His most recent work includes the novella The Cockroach (2019) and critically acclaimed novels Nutshell (2016), Machines Like Me (2019) and Lessons (2022).

DAME ANNA WINTOUR DBE

Dame Anna Wintour DBE has held the position of editor-in-chief of Vogue since July 1988. In 2020, she was appointed Chief Content Officer of Condé Nast and Global Editorial Director of Vogue. Ms. Wintour has long been actively involved in philanthropic fundraising, particularly for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute, for which she has raised more than $300 million to date, and serves as an Elective Trustee of the institution. She is a Founding Committee Member for the New York-Presbyterian Youth Anxiety Center, which focuses on mental health in young people, and has supported young and emerging designers globally including the CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund, which she helped found in 2003. In 2012, she received the Human Rights Campaign’s Ally for Equality Award for her support of the LGBTQ+ community, and she fundraised for HIV and AIDS research through events like Seventh on Sale and organisations like God’s Love We Deliver. In 2008, Ms. Wintour was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and in 2017, she was named Dame Commander (DBE) of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2011, she was awarded the Légion d’Honneur.

KNIGHT COMMANDER OF THE ORDER OF THE BATH (KCB)

ALEXANDER JAMES CHISHOLM

He was the first Chief Executive of the Competition and Markets Authority, where he led the successful merger of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission. In 2016 he became Permanent Secretary at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which subsequently became the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). During his tenure, BEIS developed the industrial strategy, helped businesses prepare for EU Exit, and led the energy transition and adoption of the net zero climate commitment. In 2020 he became Permanent Secretary at the Cabinet Office and Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, where he has undertaken the leadership and governance of the Cabinet Office as well as leading on Civil Service efficiency and reform.

DAME COMMANDER OF THE ORDER OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE (DBE)

JACQUELINE BAILLIE MSP

She has represented Dumbarton since 1999 and is one of only three MSPs elected in 1999 to retain the same seat in the Scottish Parliament. Prior to this she worked both in the public and voluntary sector. She works tirelessly in her local communities and represents all in her community irrespective of politics. She has not always taken politically convenient or comfortable positions, but instead has always put principle and the good of the country first. She has made major contributions on homelessness and disability rights in Scotland. She won Scotland-wide acclaim for her work on exposing, and campaigning for a public inquiry into, a lethal outbreak of Clostridium difficile colitis at the Vale of Leven Hospital in her constituency. The inquiry cost £10m, while the families were offered £1m, prompting her to call for greater compensation for those affected. She is currently deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

PROFESSOR DIANE COYLE CBE

She has long been one of the world’s leading economists. Since her CBE in 2018, she has consolidated this position through ground-breaking contributions to economic policy and practice and commitment to public service, including dedicated work to raise the public profile of economics. She was appointed Bennett Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge in 2018 and co-director of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy. A significant strand of her recent work focuses on moving beyond GDP, using a new measurement framework centred on six types of economic capital: physical, financial, natural, intangible, human and social. Her contributions to the practice of economics are also considerable, playing a crucial role in challenging and improving how and what economists measure. Similar themes are explored in her 2021 book Cogs and Monsters: What Economics Is And What It Should Be.

ANNETTE KING

She is one of the most influential people in the UK advertising industry. In 2018, she became the first CEO of Publicis Groupe UK, one of the ‘big four’ holding companies. She is in charge of 25 agencies, including iconic creative agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, and oversees 5,000 people. Publicis Groupe UK’s clients are among the UK’s biggest advertisers, including BT; GSK;

Disney; Lloyds Banking Group; Proctor and Gamble; and Samsung. She is the Chair of the Advertising Association, a Member of UK Investment Council, and has been an IPA Council member and served on various committees since 2010. She has also sat on various committees for Women in Advertising and Communications Leadership (since 2007). She was Chair of the Creative Industries Trade and Investment Board (2018-21) and Non-Executive Director of London First (2011-15).

SUSAN LANGLEY OBE

A pioneering woman with a long career in the male-dominated world of insurance, she champions equality, actively encouraging others to follow in the path she has established. She rose through executive roles with Lloyd’s of London and Hiscox and is currently Non-Executive Chair of Gallagher UK and the Senior Independent Director for UKAR (Northern Rock Asset Management and Bradford and Bingley). Previous roles include CEO of Financial and Professional Services for the Department for International Trade, a Trustee of Macmillan Cancer Support and the Lead Non Executive Director for the Home Office. A recipient of a number of awards, she was the Financial Services founding member of the Women’s Business Council. An Alderwoman in the City of London, she is passionate about social mobility and inclusion.

PROFESSOR AVERIL OLIVE MANSFIELD CBE

She is a pioneering surgeon who blazed a trail for women in medicine, having been the first person in her family to enter higher education. She has made an outstanding national contribution to healthcare, academia and equality. She was President of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and of the Vascular Surgical Society; President of the BMA and Vice President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England; Chair of Council of The Stroke Association. Passionate about encouraging more women into medicine, in 1991 she began and was the founding chair of a hugely successful networking group - Women in Surgical Training - at the Royal College of Surgeons. The initial membership was under 200 and is now 6,000. She is still regarded as their guiding light and her advice is frequently sought. She continues to travel around the UK in order to speak with students and young doctors about their future careers. She was the first female vascular surgeon and in 1993 was made the first female UK Professor of Surgery.

KATHRYN McDOWELL CBE DL

She has been Managing Director of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) since 2005. She has enhanced the LSO’s profile during her tenure by sustaining long-lasting relationships in Japan, Paris and New York; organising visits to Australia for the first time in decades; and the first visits to South America and Vietnam. Through the development of the community activities based at LSO London, she has overseen the growth of programmes such as the East London Academy, which gives training in Classical Music to young people from underrepresented and underprivileged communities as well as working with special needs in hospitals. Meanwhile the LSO’s media arm, LSO Live, has grown substantially, bringing in significant export income. Away from the LSO she is a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London and Chair of its Council for Cultural Heritage; former Director of Leeds Piano Competition; a member of the Council of St Paul’s Cathedral; a member of Belfast High School; and a member of the Association of British Orchestras.

PROFESSOR ELEANOR JANE MILNER-GULLAND

She has made a sustained high-level contribution over a 32-year career to biodiversity conservation directly and by inspiring and enabling others, many notably from developing countries. She is one of the UK’s pre-eminent scientists; her Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science works across five continents to understand, predict, and influence human behaviour to reduce biodiversity loss while upholding human rights and wellbeing, advise businesses on improving environmental and social sustainability, and control illegal wildlife trade. She has chaired the UK Government’s Darwin Expert Committee since 2019 and since 2021 has served on HM Treasury’s Biodiversity Valuation Working Group. She has been a trustee of numerous organisations including WWF-UK, Flora and Flora International, Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Saiga Conservation Alliance and Conservation Optimism. She advises numerous national and international bodies including IUCN, the UN Convention on Migratory Species, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and UK Research Councils and conservation organisations.

ELIZABETH MARY NICHOLL CBE

She played netball for Wales before transitioning into sports administration. Over the last 40 years, she has held a number of senior executive roles in sport, including CEO of England Netball. While CEO of UK Sport (2010-19) she led work on sporting performance, major event investment and governance. Under her leadership, Team GB’s Olympians in 2012 delivered the most successful performance by a British Olympic squad for 104 years, winning 65 medals (29 of them gold) across 16 sports. Their Paralympic counterparts won 120 medals across 13 different sports. In 2016 Team GB finished second in both the Olympic and Paralympic medal tables, exceeding their 2012 medal counts. She was elected President of World Netball at the World Netball Congress in 2019 and the same year was appointed to the FA Women’s Super League Board. In 2021 she was appointed to the Loughborough University London Advisory Board.

DR NESLYN EUGENIE WATSON-DRUÉE CBE

She has made significant contributions in the fields of personal and career development for staff in the public, private and third sectors through voluntary organisations, local government, banking and commerce. She has been selfless in supporting young people in the black community to move away from the influence of gangs and crime and she has donated from her own savings to provide employment and to establish Colourful Radio (a community radio station intended to help young black people). She has excelled as a mentor, coach and role model for ethnic minority NHS staff. She has developed training programmes which have been sustained over decades to contribute to the advancement of people from black and ethnic minority communities, enabling many of them to break through the glass ceiling. For example, she designed the template for the Black and Minority Ethnic Leadership Programme which has been running for over 20 years in NHS hospitals and Community Trusts.

PROFESSOR MELANIE WELHAM

She is an inspiring, collaborative and passionate leader in bioscience. Highly-respected within the community and broader sectors, she has driven forward UK bioscience, supporting the delivery of bio-based solutions to tackle global challenges such as food security, climate change, infectious disease and healthy ageing. A long-standing advocate for equality, diversity and inclusion, she has influenced positive change within the research and innovation system both in the UK and abroad. She began her career as a leading researcher in molecular signalling and stem cell biology. Identifying key pathways regulating stem cell differentiation, her pioneering work laid the foundations for a wealth of research developing innovative tools for regenerative medicine. She joined BBSRC as Executive Director for Science 2012, leading to her appointment as Executive Chair in 2018.

KNIGHTS BACHELOR

MARTIN LOUIS AMIS (to be dated 18 May 2023)

He was 23 and working at the Times Literary Supplement when he wrote his first novel, The Rachel Papers (1973, Somerset Maugham Prize). At 26 he became Literary Editor of the New Statesman. He went on to publish 25 of the most influential and innovative books by a British author, including the novels Money (1984), London Fields (1989) and Time’s Arrow (1991). He served as Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Manchester until he moved to America in 2011. His acclaimed memoir Experience, written following the death of his father Sir Kingsley Amis, won the James Tait Memorial Prize in 2000. Much of his literary criticism and reportage is republished in his five collections of essays, including The Moronic Inferno and Other Visits to America and The War Against Cliché (2001).

PROFESSOR PETER JOHN BARNES FRS

He is the most eminent respiratory physician and scientist in the UK, whose work has transformed the understanding and treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD). His innovative research, often in close partnership with the pharmaceutical industry, has led directly to the development of new drugs for the treatment of asthma, which are now in widespread use and benefitting millions of patients globally. His major discoveries include: understanding the mechanisms of action of drugs used to treat airway diseases and the identification of new drug targets; and defining how inhaled corticosteroids work in asthma and the basis of corticosteroid-resistance in COPD. His research has had a major impact on patient care with exhaled nitric oxide now used around the world as a standard test to help diagnose and monitor asthma control. He became only the second lung scientist ever to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.

THE RT HON BENJAMIN BRADSHAW MP

Following an award-winning career as a journalist, he was elected Member of Parliament for Exeter at the 1997 General Election, becoming only the second Labour MP to represent the city. He campaigned for the Meteorological Office to relocate to the city and he also played a key role in Exeter being allocated funding to upgrade its vital flood defences and to improve the resilience of the railway line at Cowley Bridge. He became Minister for Local Environment,

Marine and Animal Welfare in 2003, having previously served as a junior Foreign Office Minister and Deputy Leader of the House of Commons. He led the Government’s response to Avian Influenza and Bovine Tuberculosis and was also responsible for the landmark Animal Welfare Act 2006. In June 2009 he entered Cabinet as the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, helping to ensure that the Olympic Games in 2012 would secure a lasting legacy.

ROBIN FRANCIS BUDENBERG CBE

He was appointed Chair of The Crown Estate in 2016 and reappointed for a second term in 2020. He has steered the organisation through exceptionally challenging times, overseeing its continued growth through business uncertainty, shifting retail patterns, energy transitions and the historic challenges posed by Covid-19. He is currently Chair of Lloyds Banking Group. Since being awarded a CBE in 2015, he has also served as an unpaid Non-Executive Director of Big Society Trust (interim Chair 2019-2020) and Charity Bank. Earlier in his career, as a senior figure at UBS, he made a major contribution to public service, first as one of the main private sector advisers to the Government during the 2008-09 financial crisis and then (2010-14) as CEO then Chair of UK Financial Investments. His role there was critical in stabilising RBS and Lloyds, enabling the Government to start selling its very large shareholding.

DAVID JEREMY DARROCH

During more than a decade of service he made Sky the most valuable British start-up company created in the last 30 years, when he oversaw its acquisition by Comcast for £31bn in 2018. He significantly expanded Sky’s footprint in the UK, including major employment hubs in Leeds and Scotland. Under him, Sky invested significantly in UK creative industries content and his determination to champion the Arts during the pandemic led to Sky Arts moving free to air, working with leading artists and arts organisations including Antony Gormley, English National Opera and the Hay Festival. He also secured the future stability of Sky News as an independent and impartial voice in UK news provision and established a landmark partnership with British Cycling, succeeding in his mission to create participation at all levels of the sport, as well as support elite success via Team Sky. His passionate approach to responsible business has driven substantive change in society, with major programmes focusing on grassroots sport, environmental responsibility and greater opportunities for young people.

STEPHEN ARTHUR FREARS

He is one of the UK’s most prolific film and TV directors. His first film, My Beautiful Laundrette, secured both BAFTA and Oscar nominations in 1985. He has directed numerous films since the 1980s including: Dangerous Liaisons; Prick Up Your Ears; High Fidelity; The Queen; Philomena; Dirty Pretty Things; Mrs Henderson Presents; and Florence Foster Jenkins. He has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Director and in 2008 The Daily Telegraph named him among the 100 most influential people in British culture. He returned to directing for TV with The Deal (2003) about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. In 2007 he was the first British President of the Cannes Film Festival Jury since Dirk Bogarde in 1984. In 2018 he directed the acclaimed BBC One series Very British Scandal about Jeremy Thorpe. He holds the David Lean Chair in Fiction Direction at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, where he teaches.

RUPERT ALEXANDER GAVIN

Until recently he was Chair of Historic Royal Palaces, completing three successive terms. He has simultaneously been an active theatre producer. Since 1981 his company has produced, co-produced, or co-financed over 200 major shows, winning 21 Oliviers for the productions themselves. He is a director of the Society of London Theatre, and was an architect of the Theatre Tax Relief regime, introduced in 2014 with a major positive impact on the viability of theatre, opera, and dance in the UK. He is currently Chair of the Living Room Cinema chain. Previously he was Deputy Managing Director of Dixons Stores Group and Managing Director of British Telecom’s Consumer Division, where he led the development of internet and broadband technologies. He was CEO of BBC Worldwide, transforming its commercial effectiveness, and then CEO of Odeon Cinemas, making it the largest cinema chain in Europe. His charitable work includes six years as Governor of the National Film and Television, 10 years as Treasurer of the Contemporary Art Society and 4 years as Governor of Oundle School. He has served as Master, Warden and now Court Assistant of the Grocers’ Company with its commitment to charity, education and good citizenship.

PROFESSOR IAIN GILMOUR GRAY CBE FRSE FREng

Through his strategic leadership and powerful advocacy, he acted as a catalyst in developing the UK’s capacity to design, build and manufacture aircraft. Appointed Director of Aerospace at Cranfield University, he came with a distinguished pedigree as an industry leader and the first CEO of Innovate UK. He drove creation of the £35m Aerospace Integration Research Centre with Rolls-Royce and Airbus, enabling them to collaborate in an unprecedented way. He helped to develop the £65m Digital Aviation Research Technology Centre with industry partners. As Chair of Trustees for the Bristol Aero Collection Trust (Aerospace Bristol, a registered charity) he has led the establishment of the Museum (£16m since 2014) which not only created a key regional aerospace hub and provides a key focus for STEM outreach, but also preserves Concorde, a national heritage icon.

PROFESSOR IAN ANDREW GREER DL

As the leading obstetric researcher and clinician in the management of thrombosis in pregnancy, he selflessly shares his knowledge and experience to develop and support others through his advisory roles. In 2018, having been appointed Vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) his reputation as a highly effective senior civic leader was evident in his contribution to the economic and social development of Northern Ireland. He led the City Deal Innovation Strand to secure over £225m of funding by bringing together the Devolved Administration, NI Universities and NI business community to develop a shared offering in four key sectors: health research; data and digital science; advanced manufacturing; and creative industries. In addition, he has personally led QUB’s efforts to engage more effectively with the business sector, both in terms of research collaboration and in securing places for QUB graduates where NI companies need skilled workers.

PROFESSOR STEPHEN JACKSON FRS

His lifetime work has led from blue skies academic discoveries through to forming several successful UK spin out companies and a world-first innovative therapy that has benefitted over 50,000 cancer patients. His pioneering research in Cambridge has provided many of the key principles by which cells respond to and repair DNA damage. This has included him identifying many novel DNA-damage-response (DDR) proteins, establishing how they function, showing how they are often strongly evolutionarily conserved, and highlighting how DDR dysfunctions lead to cancer and other diseases. He has also played transformational roles in promoting innovation from fundamental research, creating his first company, KuDOS Pharmaceuticals, in 1997 and two other companies that are now actively developing potential new medicines. His vibrant academic group continues to flourish, yielding new discoveries and nurturing the careers of younger scientific researchers.

DR RICHARD JOHN MANTLE OBE DL

He joined Opera North (ON), one of the UK’s leading arts organisations, in 1994, following previous roles as Managing Director at Edmonton Opera in Canada, at Scottish Opera, and as Deputy Managing Director at English National Opera. He was awarded an OBE in June 2013 for services to Music and is a Deputy Lieutenant for West Yorkshire. Based in Leeds, ON’s award-winning productions tour the North of England and beyond. Under his leadership the Company has been widely admired for its adventurous and bold creative spirit, for its commitment to musical and theatrical excellence, and for creating extraordinary experiences for audiences and participants. His tenure at ON has seen the Company transform into a complex, multifaceted arts organisation ready to meet 21st century challenges. After almost 30 years leading ON he is due to step down in 2023. He is on the Board of the National Opera Studio, a member of the General Synod of the Church of England, Trustee of the Grange Festival and the charity In Place of War. He is a doctorate of the universities of Leeds and York and a Fellow of the Royal Northern College of Music.

BEN GOLDEN EMUOBOWHO OKRI OBE

He was born in Nigeria and came to England as a child. He returned to Nigeria with his parents on the eve of the Nigerian Civil War (1967-70) which had a defining impact on his life. He began with poetry and then published articles and essays about the living conditions of the poor in the slums of Lagos. Then he wrote short stories and eventually what was to become his first novel, Flowers and Shadows. He gained international stature with the publication of The Famished Road in 1991. His first book of poems, An African Elegy, contains some of his best-known poems, including the title poem, which is a set text in schools. His epic poem, Mental Fight, has been widely read. Wild, published in 2012, is perhaps his most diverse and life-affirming volume of poems. His most recent collection of poems, A Fire in my Head, was published in 2021. His essays have also been influential. He is an honorary Fellow at Mansfield College, Oxford.

THE HON WILLIAM HARTLEY HUME SHAWCROSS CVO

He is currently the Commissioner for Public Appointments. Through 2021-2022, he was the Government’s Independent Reviewer of the UK’s Prevent Counter-Terrorism Strategy and prior to this he served as the Government’s Special Representative for UK victims of Libyan-sponsored IRA terrorism. From 2012-18 he was Chair of the Charity Commission of England and Wales, leading the organisation through a period of significant reform. He has written and lectured on subjects including international policy, geopolitics, the media, humanitarian intervention, the United Nations and the British Royal Family. He has served on the board of numerous charities and organisations, with a particular interest in helping those affected by geopolitical crises and championing human rights. He is a keen campaigner for the preservation and protection of local Conservation Areas.

MARK JOHN THOMPSON

He was an outstanding Director-General of the BBC whose tenure from 2004-12 was marked by great creative achievement, clear strategic insight about the BBC’s institutional positioning and outstanding digital innovation. He was one of the pivotal figures in the modernisation of BBC News in the late 1980s and delivered a series of significant scoops as Editor of Panorama. He had a major impact on BBC2 as its controller before spending two years as Chief Executive of Channel Four, which he reorganised and streamlined to put more talent and money on screen. It was when the BBC lost its leadership after the Gilligan-Kelly crisis that he returned there as DG. After leaving the BBC he became the first non-American CEO of The New York Times where he led the development of the world’s biggest digital news subscription model and a newsroom that, almost alone in world journalism, has hundreds more journalists today than it did ten or twenty years ago.

NICHOLAS JOHN VARNEY

As Chief Executive Officer since 1999, he has built Merlin Entertainments into a global leader in location-based, family entertainment, operating over 140 attractions, 23 hotels and six holiday villages in 24 countries across four continents. At peak it employs over 28,000 people and has been a huge British business success, creating memories for millions of families. This expansion has also seen many brands that were originally developed in the UK (such as Madame Tussauds, Sea Life and Dungeons) exported, with new attractions overseas. Merlin’s UK HQ provides support to the Sea Life Trust charity, which works globally to protect the world’s oceans and the marine life within them. He has also been integral to the creation of the Merlin’s Magic Wand charity, which provides complimentary tickets and funds a contribution towards travel for children facing serious illness, disability, or adversity to enjoy a day with their family at a Merlin Entertainments’ attraction. The charity also provides Magic Spaces sensory and attraction-themes areas in hospitals, hospices and orphanages where children are unable to travel.

PROFESSOR STEVEN GEORGE WEST CBE DL

An inspiring academic leader and President of Universities UK he has made major contributions to education, health and business, underpinned by a profound commitment to transforming lives. He leads one of the largest universities in the UK, the University of the West of England Bristol, which teaches over 37,000 students across three campuses in 10 countries, with a proud track record of widening access, (63% of students come from underrepresented groups). He is the first President of Universities UK from a Post-92 university. He has worked in partnership with the Government, the regulator and Student Minds to support the University Mental Health Charter. He is a leading voice on mental health, including student suicide and most recently calling for proactive decisions to involve trusted contacts.

PROFESSOR NAIRN HUTCHISON FULTON WILSON CBE

In dentistry home and abroad he is known and respected for promoting the importance of oral health to general health and wellbeing; his substantial influence on the global shift to preventatively orientated minimum intervention; his award-winning practice-based research; and his commitment to the adoption of modern dental filling materials, systems and approaches which, amongst other benefits, help give people in ageing populations ‘teeth for life’. In dental research he served for many years (including several as Chair) on the Board of Trustees of the Oral and Dental Research Trust (a charity established to promote the relief of suffering in oral and dental diseases through research and education) and in 2011 the British Dental Association awarded him the John

Tomes Medal, which honours members of the dental profession and of scientific eminence for their outstanding service to the de