King's College London

In his first Birthday Honours List as Monarch, King Charles III has awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) to Professor Prokar Dasgupta, Chair in Robotic Surgery and Urological Innovation, for services to Surgery and Science.

Professor Prokar Dasgupta is a clinician-scientist who is credited with describing an innovative technique of injecting Botulinum toxin (Botox) with a flexible telescope to target bladder nerves, a method which has been named after him and helped millions of patients worldwide.

Professor Dasgupta pioneered robotic urological surgery at Guy's Hospital and leads on surgical simulation within the UK and internationally. In 2010 and 2018 he was named one of the top ten prostate cancer surgeons in the United Kingdom by the Daily Mail. In 2020 he completed nearly a decade as Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Urology International (BJUI) after transforming it into one of the most read surgical journals on the web.

Stephen Franey, Technical Staff Development Manager, has been awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for Services to Technical Staff in Research and Education.

Stephen was instrumental in ensuring that King’s College London became a founding signatory of the Technician Commitment in 2017. This is an initiative to grow the visibility, recognition, career development and sustainability of technicians in higher education across the UK. Stephen has championed the unheard voice of the technical community and their contribution to teaching and research through his work at a national level with the Science Council. Since its inception, more than 100 universities, research institutions, professional bodies and funding organisations have signed up to the Technician Commitment, driving positive cultural change in higher education for technicians and ensuring the persistence of high quality research and teaching across the sector.

Professor Louise Howard, Professor Emerita in Women’s Mental Health, has been awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her services to women’s mental health.

Professor Howard has led a number of research programmes aimed at improving mental health service policy and practice, including a focus on perinatal mental health and the relationship between violence and mental health. She led research for the REF 2021 Impact Case Study 'The transformation of perinatal mental health care'. This research informed the updated NICE guidelines on how to identify and treat perinatal mental illness, developed new evidence-based care pathways and was the basis of the specialist training of thousands of clinicians internationally, including via the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Health Education England.

Professor Francis Hughes, Emeritus Professor of Periodontology at the Centre for Host Microbiome Interactions and Faculty of Oral Dental and Craniofacial Sciences, has been recognised with an MBE for services to dentistry.

His research and academic interests are focused on the biology of periodontal regeneration, systemic and genetic risk factors for periodontal disease, and periodontal biomarkers. Professor Hughes has contributed to postgraduate and specialist level training in Periodontology for well over 100 students from all around the world. He has also supervised a total of 23 PhD students through to successful completion of their theses.

Professor Terrie Moffitt, Chair in Social Behaviour & Development, has been awarded an MBE for services to Social Science.

Professor Moffitt is a licensed clinical psychologist, specialising in neuropsychological assessment. Her expertise is in the areas of longitudinal methods, developmental theory, clinical mental health research, neuropsychology, and genomics in behavioural science. She founded the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study (E-Risk), which follows a 1994 birth cohort in the UK and her research team was among the first cohorts to collect DNA, in 1996. Her team emphasises representing science accurately to the media, and promotes public understanding of behavioural science. In 2018, Professor Moffitt’s work was recognized by election to the US National Academy of Medicine.

Professor Christine Norton, Professor of Clinical Nursing Research in the Faculty of Nursing Midwifery & Palliative Care has been awarded an MBE for services to nursing research.

A Registered Nurse who has specialised in helping people with incontinence for over 30 years, Professor Norton’s research concentrates on improving symptoms and quality of life for people with chronic bowel conditions. She leads an NIHR programme on managing fatigue, pain and incontinence in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Her other research includes managing constipation, management of neurogenic bowel symptoms and nurse-led interventions for incontinence. Professor Norton chaired the NICE guideline on faecal incontinence and has published extensively in a range of nursing and medical journals. She is also passionate about helping nurses to develop as clinical academics.

Professor Emeritus Nairn Wilson CBE, an Emeritus Professor of Dentistry at King’s and Honorary Founding President of the College of General Dentistry, has been awarded a Knighthood for services to Dentistry.

At King’s, he was Professor of Restorative Dentistry, Dean and Head of the College’s internationally renowned Dental Institute from 2001 to 2012, and Deputy Vice Principal (Health) from 2009 to 2012. He led the initiative (2016 - 2021) to form the College of General Dentistry.

His professional interests include clinical dental biomaterials science, practice-based research, international trends in dental education, and the recent history and future developments in the clinical practice of dentistry. He was appointed CBE in 2004 for services to dentistry and healthcare regulation.