A key scientific adviser during the Covid pandemic has received a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List, with several other leading figures in higher education also commended.
John Edmunds, professor of infectious disease modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), was upgraded from an OBE to a knighthood for services to epidemiology.
Professor Edmunds recently delivered testimony to the UK’s ongoing Covid inquiry, during which he discussed a WhatsApp message he received from Dame Angela McLean, now the government’s chief medical adviser, describing prime minister Rishi Sunak as “Dr Death, the chancellor”.
Elsewhere, John Iredale, pro vice-chancellor for health at the University of Bristol and the former interim executive chair of the Medical Research Council, was knighted for services to medical research. Professor Iredale, Bristol’s chair of experimental medicine, also became the chair of the Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine in 2022.
