University academics are honoured by the Queen
02 Mar 2012
The Queen presented The University of Manchester with an award in recognition of the quality of its work in the nuclear field at a ceremony at Buckingham Palace last week.
President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Nancy Rothwell led a delegation of senior academics, senior University officers and a group of PhD students to receive a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education for the Dalton Nuclear Institute – the University’s world-leading nuclear research centre.
The prizes recognise and celebrate winners’ outstanding work, which is making a real and practical impact for the benefit of human progress.
At the ‘Diamond Jubilee’ presentation ceremony at Buckingham Palace, the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh presented Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell and Professor Andrew Sherry, Director of the Dalton Nuclear Institute, with the award.
Queen’s Anniversary Prize-winners were presented with a silver gilt medal and certificate signed personally by the Queen. The certificate was designed by Central Saint Martins’ BA Graphic Design students, Helen Lovelee and Frida Delin for a design competition held by the Royal Anniversary Trust in collaboration with University of the Arts London.
The Dalton Nuclear Institute was established in 2005 as a leading national centre for nuclear research and education. With a broad range of education programmes, and outstanding nuclear research capabilities alongside more than fifteen strategic partnerships with international industry and academia, the Institute is dedicated to maximising the impact of nuclear research and skills development.
The Institute offers the most significant nuclear research facilities available for academic research in the UK, including the new Dalton Cumbrian Facility near Sellafield, and is partnered with Serco and the Battelle Memorial Institute as the SBM management consortium of the UK’s National Nuclear Laboratory.
The full breadth of nuclear research is addressed in an interdisciplinary manner, with the Institute incorporating the Centre for Nuclear Energy Technology, the Research Centre for Decommissioning and Radioactive Waste Management, and the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (a collaboration with Sheffield University). The Institute also has strong links with nuclear medicine.
Professor Rothwell said: “It was a great honour and privilege to be invited to meet the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on behalf of our staff and students, and it is fantastic recognition of the outstanding research here at The University of Manchester.”
Professor Sherry added: “This prize is a tremendous encouragement for the staff and students who have worked hard to establish Manchester at the forefront of nuclear research and higher learning.
“The prize comes at a time when the UK is developing its nuclear research agenda and as a world-leading institution, The University of Manchester is committed to playing its part to help shape and deliver this agenda to benefit the UK.”