Three Strathclyde academics have been named in the New Year's Honours List in recognition of their contributions to their professions and to wider society.
Professors Roma Maguire and Yvonne Perrie have been made MBEs and Gavin Halbert has been awarded an OBE for their work related to health and care research.
Professor Maguire, Director of the Health and Care Futures Initiative at Strathclyde, is a former nurse with extensive experience in healthcare research in particular the co-design, development, implementation and evaluation of remote patient monitoring systems to improve patient outcomes.
Her research spans several clinical specialities including cancer, dementia, cardiac and respiratory disease and palliative/end of life care. She has led several multi-site supportive care and digital health studies in the UK and across Europe. Professor Maguire is also co-lead of the Health Technology Cluster at the University and holds an Honorary Nurse Consultant post at NHS Lanarkshire, one of Strathclyde’s strategic partners.
She said: “I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive this recognition. I am thankful for the privilege of working with exceptional colleagues who, like me, are driven by a shared passion for advancing healthcare research. Together we strive to make a meaningful and positive impact on the lives of individuals and society at large.”
Deeply honoured
Professor Perrie is Head of Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences and an internationally recognised expert in the field of liposomes and particulate drug delivery whose research focuses on developing drug and vaccine delivery systems. She is the current Editor-in-Chief of the Royal Society of Chemistry journal RSC Pharmaceutics.
Professor Perrie said: “I am absolutely thrilled and deeply honoured to be recognised in the New Year's Honours List. I am extremely fortunate to be part of a community comprising so many talented and dedicated colleagues committed to enhancing healthcare through pharmaceutical innovation and regulation.
“I am incredibly grateful for the many opportunities I have had to work with and learn from this community. As my family, friends and colleagues are aware, I have a long-lasting fascination with nanomedicines that dates back to my initial introduction to the field by Professor Gregory Gregoriadis and it is fantastic to see the positive impact these systems have made on our health. Nanomedicines are indeed small yet mighty, and going forward, we can look forward to their further application in improving our health.”
Professor Halbert, is the Director of the Cancer Research UK Formulation Unit in the Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences. The Unit focuses on the development of investigational medicinal products for Phase I/II clinical trials in cancer, covering analytical development, pre-formulation, formulation, and GMP manufacture. Gavin’s academic role covers teaching and research in a range of pharmaceutical science areas.
He is a pharmaceutical scientist with a broad research interests aimed at ensuring adequate drug exposure is achieved at the target site after administration of a medicinal product, covering areas such as advanced pharmaceutical manufacturing, biopharmaceutical properties and medicinal and analytical chemistry.
A Strathclyde graduate, Professor Halbert’s career has spanned more than 35 years and has seen him win a grant total in excess of £50 million and publish a combined total of more than 200 papers, patents and presentations. He has experience of taking more than 50 novel new chemical entities into clinical trial, including agents such as temozolomide and abiraterone acetate.
He said: “This recognition is welcome but I cannot claim responsibility since it is down to the Cancer Research UK Formulation Unit’s staff over the years and, possibly more importantly, the cancer patients who volunteer for the clinical trials that the Unit supports. The combination is improving cancer treatments and survival with the potential for further success based on current research and development.”
Truly delighted
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal & Vice Chancellor of Strathclyde, said: “I am truly delighted to see three more Strathclyders recognised for their contribution to their fields and to Scottish society in the New Year’s Honours List.
“Our people are what makes Strathclyde a socially progressive, leading international technological University that uses its distinctive approach to teaching, research and innovation to have a positive effect on the world around us. Roma, Yvonne and Gavin epitomise the very best of our impactful research leadership, and whose work is underpinned and facilitated by our institutional values.
“The entire University staff will join me in congratulating all three colleagues on this wonderful recognition of their work.”