Three University of Birmingham academics – Professor Kalwant Bhopal, Professor John Nolan and Dr. Melrose Stewart – have been recognised in the 2020 New Year Honours list.

Described as a ‘Race Equality Champion’, Professor Bhopal, the director of UoB’s Centre for Research in Race and Education, is awarded an MBE for services to ‘Equality in Education.’ Her research, which is used in influencing policy in the higher education sector, looks at the educational achievements and experiences of ethnic minority groups.

Professor Nolan, a visiting professor at the Department of Civil Engineering, is made a CBE for services to ‘Structural Engineering and the Construction Industry.’ In a career spanning over four decades, he has progressed from labourer, to contractor’s engineer, to consulting engineer.

Dr. Stewart, a lecturer in physiotherapy, is given an MBE for services to that subject. She has appeared on the Channel 4 show ‘Old People’s Home for 4 Year Olds’ and has given a TEDx talk entitled ‘Connecting Generations for Healthy Ageing’. Dr. Stewart is a former Vice-President of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy.

In addition, two UoB astrophysicists have been honoured by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) in their 2020 Awards. Professor Yvonne Elsworth is a recipient of the society’s highest award, the Gold Medal, in recognition of her work in the field of helioseismology (the study of the Sun through its oscillations).

And Dr. Amaury Triaud, said to have ‘pioneered observational studies into the dynamical origins of gas-giant planets in close orbits about their host stars,’ has been given the RAS Fowler Award for ‘Early Achievement in Astronomy.’