University honours seven at graduations

The ceremonies take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, July 18, 19 and 20, in the Great Hall of the city campus, where Chancellor Kate Swann and Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor will present the honorary degrees.

Receiving honorary degrees from the University will be:

Professor Alok Dhawan

Professor Alok Dhawan is Director, CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow. Professor Dhawan started the area of nanomaterial toxicology in India and published a guidance document on the safe use of nanomaterials. His work in the area of nanomaterial toxicology has won him international accolades and many individual honours and awards. He has been elected a Fellow of several National Academies of Science worldwide.

Sir David Behan CBE

Sir David is the Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission and an alumnus of the University of Bradford. He was awarded a knighthood for services to health and care in the 2017 New Year's Honours list.

He was previously the Director General of Social Care, Local Government and Care Partnerships at the Department of Health, the President of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, and the first Chief Inspector of the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

Professor Jacqui Taylor

Professor Taylor is a web scientist, internet of things entrepreneur and a Government adviser. After implementing a banking regulatory change programme with Web 3.0 tools she co-founded FlyingBinary a web science company which changes the world with data, one of the original 250 Tech City companies. She is a high profile mentor in the world’s number one digital hub, Tech City.

Jacqui is recognised as one of the 100 most powerful UK entrepreneurs.

Professor Dame Pamela Shaw

Dame Pamela Shaw is Professor of Neurology and Vice President and Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health at the University of Sheffield and Founding Director of the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN), one of the world leading centres for motor neuron disease (MND) research.

She has taken part in more than 15 MND clinical trials, including roles as UK Chief Investigator and Steering Committee member and also including several academic led studies. She is an active member of the European Network for the Cure of ALS (ENCALS).

Paul Jagger MBE

Paul is a former Pro Chancellor of the University of Bradford, former TUC regional secretary, and former board member of Yorkshire Forward. He is a key economic, skills and social policy figure in Yorkshire and the Humber, with 40 years’ experience of regional and local working through formal and informal institutions.

Paul was Regional Secretary of the TUC from 1987 to 2006, during which time it became the first trade union structure in England and Wales to receive funding for the development of workplace training through the trade union network.

Saphieh Ashtiany

Born in Iran and educated in the UK, Saphieh is a lawyer and expert in equality and employment law. Her first job was with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants in London working mostly with Commonwealth Immigrants facing new restrictions and she then successfully applied for a new role established by the UN High Commission for Refugees’ Office at the UK Immigrants’ Advisory Service as the first dedicated advice and advocacy service for refugees in the UK.

She later founded Ashtiany Associates, a small consultancy specialising in equality law and working predominantly with institutional and charitable bodies. She is a Trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.

Professor the Baroness Haleh Afshar OBE FASSc

Haleh Afshar is emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of York and Honorary President of the Muslim Women’s Network UK. She serves as a Crossbench Peer in the House of Lords

Afshar was born and raised in Iran where she worked as a journalist and a civil servant. In 2005 she was awarded an OBE for services to equal opportunities. In 2009 she was made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She has served on many Government bodies, commissions and advisory groups, and is a patron of National Coalition Building Institute (Diversity Hub); Solace ;Women and Children First; Refugee Action York; the Yorkshire Kidney research fund; the Haven Project (Hull); Women and Children First; United Nations’ Association’s International Services.

Note: if you would like to arrange an interview with any of the honorary graduates please contact the communications team on 01274 236030.