University of Bradford honours four for global achievements

The Bradford Global Achievement Awards take place at the University’s city centre campus on Thursday 25 February and will follow the installation of new Chancellor Kate Swann. They will provide a fitting climax to a day that will also see Vice-Chancellor Brian Cantor and Kate receive a Queen’s Anniversary Prize from Her Majesty the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Four Global Achievement Awards will be presented, honouring world class contributions in diverse fields. The awards recognise truly exceptional people who have made a difference to the advancement of society. In making these awards the University will also celebrate the vision and values of the institution by showcasing the achievements of people who live and work by these values.

The winners are: Dame Ellen MacArthur, Dame Athene Donald, Sir Paul Nurse and Professor Amartya Sen

Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor said: “We are delighted to be honouring such exceptional individuals, people who have made, and continue to make, such a contribution to the advancement of society. Their achievements are truly global in scale and impact, an aspiration to which we at Bradford are fully committed. We are proud of our world-leading research that supports our ambitious vision to be a world-leading technology university, recognised on a global stage for our societal impact. Our Bradford Global Achievement winners remind us of what is possible and I am sure will inspire our students to achieve great things themselves.”

Profiles:

Dame Ellen MacArthur

Dame Ellen made yachting history in 2005 when she became the fastest solo sailor to circumnavigate the globe. She remains the UK’s most successful offshore racer ever, having won the Ostar, the Route du Rhum and finished second in the Vendée Globe at just 24 years of age.

Having become acutely aware of the finite nature of the resources our linear economy relies upon, she stepped away from professional sailing to launch the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in 2010, which works with education, business and government to accelerate the transition to a regenerative circular economy. The Foundation has published seminal macro-economic reports featuring analysis by McKinsey, which have received accolades at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Dame Ellen acts as Vice-Chair of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Meta-Council on the circular economy, and has sat on the European Commission’s Resource Efficiency Platform between 2012 and 2014. She received the French Legion of Honour from President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008, three years after having been knighted.

Professor Dame Athene Donald DBE, FRS

Athene Donald is a Professor of Experimental Physics in the University of Cambridge and Master of Churchill College. She has served on many university committees and was Gender Equality Champion from 2010 -14.

Athene is a Fellow of the Royal Society, Trustee of the Science Museum Group, Member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council, and is President of the British Science Association. She is a regular blogger, particularly about gender issues and on the Guardian Science blogs. She also is a regular tweeter.

Athene is married to Matthew Donald, a mathematician. They have two adult children, James and Margaret.

Sir Paul Nurse

Sir Paul is a geneticist and cell biologist who has worked on how the eukaryotic cell cycle is controlled and how cell shape and cell dimensions are determined. His major work has been on the cyclin dependent protein kinases and how they regulate cell reproduction.

He is Director of the Francis Crick Institute in London and has served as President of the Royal Society, Chief Executive of Cancer Research UK and President of Rockefeller University. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and has received the Albert Lasker Award and the Royal Society's Royal and Copley Medals. He was knighted in 1999 and received the Legion d'honneur in 2003.

Professor Amartya Sen

Amartya Sen is Thomas W. Lamont University Professor, and Professor of Economics and Philosophy, at Harvard University and was until 2004 the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge. He is also Senior Fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Earlier he was Professor of Economics at Jadavpur University Calcutta, the Delhi School of Economics, and the London School of Economics, and Drummond Professor of Political Economy at Oxford University.

Amartya Sen has served as President of the Econometric Society, the American Economic Association, the Indian Economic Association, and the International Economic Association. His research has ranged over social choice theory, economic theory, ethics and political philosophy, welfare economics, theory of measurement, decision theory, development economics, public health, and gender studies.

Amartya Sen’s awards include Bharat Ratna (India); Commandeur de la Legion d'Honneur (France); the National Humanities Medal (USA); Ordem do Merito Cientifico (Brazil); Honorary Companion of Honour (UK); Aztec Eagle (Mexico); Edinburgh Medal (UK); the George Marshall Award (USA); the Eisenhauer Medal (USA); and the Nobel Prize in Economics.