University members recognised in 2024 New Year Honours
02 Jan 2024
Three of our professors are among those recognised in the King’s 2024 New Year Honours List
Professor Danielle George has been made a CBE for her services to Engineering, Professor Joyce Ann Tyldesley has been made OBE for her services to Egyptology and Heritage and Professor Philip Diamond has been awarded CBE for his services to Global Radio Astronomy.
They are among 1,227 people across the country, in all fields of work, who have been handed honours to celebrate their contributions to society, community or their area of employment.
Danielle is a Professor of Radio Frequency Engineering and is one of our Associate Vice-Presidents. She was President of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) in 2020/21 and currently a Vice-President of the British Computer Society, Chartered Institute for IT. She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 Queen’s Honours List for services to engineering through public engagement.
As the Associate Vice-President for Blended and Flexible Learning Danielle has responsibility to design, develop and deliver our Flexible Learning agenda.
Danielle’s research is dedicated to solving one the 14 world engineering grand challenges of the 21st century; engineering the tools for scientific discovery. Her research is delivering class-leading ultra-low noise receivers for space and aerospace applications.
Her passion for raising public awareness of the positive impact engineering and science has on all aspects of our everyday lives, as well as highlighting to young people the immense depth and breadth of opportunities a career in science and engineering can offer. She presented the 2014 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.
Danielle said: “I am so proud to receive this honour. It is incredibly important that people see the variety of careers that are possible within engineering and I hope that this helps to show where studying this amazing subject can lead. Let’s celebrate engineering and all its ingeniousness!”
Joyce is Professor of Egyptology in the Department of Classics, Ancient History, Archaeology and Egyptology, teaching students worldwide on an innovative suite of online courses ranging from Certificate (level 1) to Masters.
She is a teaching-focused Egyptologist and her research interests include the development of distance-learning Egyptology, Egyptian historiography, and the role of women in ancient Egypt.
Joyce studied the archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean at Liverpool University, then obtained a D.Phil in prehistoric archaeology from Oxford University. She holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Bolton and is a Research Associate of the Manchester Museum. Joyce is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Reflecting her interest in outreach, Joyce has published a series of books and articles on ancient Egypt, including three television tie-in books and Cleopatra, Last Queen of Egypt, which was a Radio 4 "Book of the Week". Her book Tutankhamen: The Search for an Egyptian King, won the Felicia A Holton Book Award from the Archaeological Institute of America.
Joyce said: “The University of Manchester has given me the opportunity to share my love of ancient Egypt by allowing me to develop a range of online Egyptology courses which make ancient Egypt available to students worldwide. I am both proud and humbled by this award, and wish to say thank you to the many colleagues and students who have supported me over the years, and who have made this possible.”
Philip is a Professor of Astrophysics and the Director-General of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), where he is responsible for the team designing and ultimately constructing the SKA, which, when completed, will be the largest scientific facility on the planet.
Professor Diamond’s research interests include studies of star birth and death; exploring both through the use of radio interferometers such as MERLIN. He is also interested in high resolution studies of supernovae, both in our own galaxy and in others. He is also involved in studies of discs of molecular gas rotating around super-massive black-holes at the centres of other galaxies.
Philip completed his PhD at The University of Manchester in 1982 before going on to fulfil many impressive roles within the field across the globe, including Onsala Space Observatory in Sweden (1982-84), the Max-Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Bonn, Germany (1984-86), the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) in the USA (1987-99) and CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science (CASS) in Australia (2010-2012).
He became Director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics in 2006. The University owns and operates the giant Lovell Telescope and, on behalf of the UK’s Science and Technology Facilities Council, the e-MERLIN/VLBI National Facility, where Professor Diamond was responsible for the operation of both facilities. He is still a Professor at the University.
Throughout his career, Philip has published more than 300 research papers in astronomy.
Philip said: "I am so very humbled to have been awarded the CBE for services to global radio astronomy. This has only been possible with the support of the many colleagues with whom I have worked over the years from across the world, including those at The University of Manchester. It is by working together that we can achieve great things in both science and society."