The Learned Society of Wales is pleased to report the award of three prestigious honours to Fellows of the Society in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2016.

Sir David Grant CBE FREng FLSW has been appointed to Knight of the British Empire for outstanding contribution to engineering, technology and skills. Sir David is a Senior Independent Director of IQE (2012 – ) the leading global supplier of advanced semiconductor wafer products and wafer services to the semiconductor industry. He was Vice-Chancellor of Cardiff University from 2001 to 2012. Previously he held leadership positions in a number of international businesses including United Technologies Corp., Dowty Group plc and GEC plc. He has been a Vice-President of the IET, a Council member of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and was a Vice-President of the Royal Academy of Engineering (2007 – 2012). He was awarded the IEE’s Mensforth Gold Medal in 1996 and in 1997 he was made a CBE for his contribution to the UK’s Foresight Programme.

Professor Laura McAllister CBE FLSW has been appointed to be a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to Sport in Wales. Laura McAllister is Professor of Governance at the University of Liverpool’s School of Management and an expert on devolution. A former Wales football international and national team captain with 24 caps, Laura is currently Chair of Sport Wales (formerly the Sports Council for Wales). She is a Board Member of UK Sport, the Government’s agency for Olympic and Paralympic sport, and the Welsh Football Trust. She is a trustee of the Institute of Welsh Affairs, as well as a member of the Wales Advisory Committee of the British Council, and has also been a Trustee of Stonewall UK. Laura holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Bangor, Cardiff, Cardiff Metropolitan and Glamorgan.

Professor Graham Hutchings FLSW FRS, has been given the title of Regius Professor, a prestigious honour newly bestowed on Cardiff University’s School of Chemistry to mark the 90th birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. It is the first time that the honour has been granted to a university in Wales. Professor Hutchings is the director of the Cardiff Catalysis Institute (CCI) in the School of Chemistry and one of the world’s pre-eminent authorities on catalysis – the process of making chemical reactions happen more quickly in order to make products cheaper, cleaner, safer and more sustainable. Professor Hutchings’ landmark discovery during his time at the CCI is that gold is a remarkable catalyst for certain reactions, most notably for the production of vinyl chloride, the main ingredient of PVC. As a direct result of his pioneering research, a gold catalyst is now being manufactured by UK chemicals company Johnson Matthey at a purpose-built facility in China.

Professor Hutchings said:

I am extremely honoured to have been awarded the title of Regius Professor. The award is bestowed on the basis of academic excellence and impact, both of which we excel in at the Cardiff Catalysis Institute. Catalysis touches everything we do and provides solutions to pressing issues such as food provision, drug discovery, clean energy and global warming. I’m sure this prestigious honour will draw even more attention to the ground-breaking work we are doing to meet these challenges.