Three White City Professors Awarded New Year Honours
Including two OBEs and a rare Royal Victorian Order given by King Charles
Professor Justin Cobb and Professor Sunil Shaunak
January 16, 2023
King Charles has awarded an unusual royal honour to Professor Justin Cobb, who runs the MSk Lab at Imperial College’s White City Campus in Wood Lane.
Professor Cobb is one of three distinguished professors based at Imperial College locations in White City to be recognised on the New Year Honours List.
This honour, the Royal Victorian Order, was created by Queen Victoria in 1896 to reward extraordinary services to the monarch, and King Charles has awarded it to Professor Cobb in recognition of his services to his parents, the late Queen and Prince Philip and the rest of the Royal Household over the last 15 years.
Professor Cobb is Chair in Orthopaedic Surgery in Imperial College’s Department of Surgery & Cancer as well as running the MSk Lab in the Sir Michael Uren Biomedical Engineering Hub, a building devoted to biomedical engineering, housing engineers, scientists and clinicians working on many projects, from regenerative medicine to neurotechnology and dementia research.
Professor Cobb said: "The real honour was being able to help in the care of our late monarch and her husband. They both appreciated that surgery is demanding, particularly in the ageing body. “
Professor Jonathan Waxman, Emeritus Professor of Oncology at Hammersmith Hospital in Du Cane Road has been awarded an OBE for his services to prostate cancer awareness and treatment.
Professor Jonathan Waxman
Professor Waxman has helped develop new treatments for cancer and directed a laboratory research group of 40 scientists whose focus was and is the development of new cancer treatments and tests.
He has raised funds for the building of the Hammersmith Cancer Centre at Imperial College whose spirit aims to combine the best of conventional and alternative therapies.
He also founded Prostate Cancer UK, the first UK based national organisation promoting research and patient support for this condition, which affects one man in eight. The charity currently raises £35 million per year and employs 200 people.
Professor Waxman said: "I was thrilled to receive this award, which acknowledges both the work done at Imperial to help men with prostate cancer and the evolution of Prostate Cancer UK to become the UK's biggest men's health charity."
Emeritus Professor Sunil Shaunak has also been awarded an OBE for his services to infectious diseases and drug discovery.
Professor Shaunak works in Imperial College London's Department of Infectious Disease and is based at the College’s Hammersmith campus on Du Cane Road.
Over the past 40 years he has developed cost-effective new medicines for Hepatitis C, leishmaniasis, AIDS and Shigella.
Professor Shaunak has championed the international public debate about the need for equitable global access to affordable medicines. These can be modelled on expensive drugs, but modified to make them both patentable (he has 23 granted patents) and cost-effective as new medicines.
His work shows how university-based innovation can be turned into useful and affordable global healthcare products.
Professor Shaunak said, “We set out to turn our blue-sky research into cost-effective new medicines and called our approach Ethical Pharmaceuticals. It’s now widely accepted for enabling better access to affordable healthcare products. Through our work, we’ve contributed to improving people’s health worldwide.
“ I’m delighted to be honoured in this way and give thanks to colleagues who have helped turn ideas into reality.”
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