Celebrating our people 2024

Posted on 9 December 2024

Across the University, we are celebrating our staff and students for their contributions, achievements, and impact across our community over the past 12 months, including a former student receiving a Nobel Prize.

From tackling issues of global human rights and improving environmental biodiversity, through to supporting vulnerable students and enhancing cultural experiences, our staff, students and alumni have been recognised across a range of disciplines and areas.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Charlie Jeffery said: “I am incredibly proud that our community has continued to make significant leaps forward in improving the lives of communities around the world, and the number of awards over the past twelve months demonstrate how well valued these contributions are.

"I am especially pleased to see that these successes have been achieved by academics and students, professional services colleagues and alumni alike. They show just what an outstanding community we have.

“I want to thank everyone for their dedication, demonstrating what a university for public good really means, and playing such a significant role in creating a happier, healthier and more sustainable world.”

Honours

In the 2024 New Year’s Honours list Professor Julian Richards, from the Department of Archaeology, was awarded an OBE for services to Heritage and Digital Archiving, and Professor Rachel Cowgill, from the School of Arts and Creative Technologies was awarded an MBE for services to Culture, Education and Arts.

Prizes/awards

University of York alumnus Daron Acemoglu has been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences. Daron Acemoglu said: "I am deeply honored by this prize. It's been a long journey, and I always emphasize that it started at York, where I learned so much of the economics I've used throughout my career, and, even more importantly, I learned to value and love academic research."

Professor Charlotte O'Brien won Outstanding Public Policy Impact at the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Celebrating Impact Awards for her work on the EU Rights and Brexit Hub, a first of its kind, nation-wide hub which uses strategic legal action to help shape and secure the rights of more than six million EU nationals residing in the UK.

University of York graduate, Samantha Harvey, was named the winner of the Booker Prize 2024 for her novel Orbital. Samantha, who studied Philosophy with English at York as an undergraduate, received £50,000 and a trophy. One of five women on the Booker shortlist this year, she is the first woman to win the prize since 2019. Her novel takes place over a single day in the life of six astronauts and cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station.

International Development student and University of Sanctuary Scholar, Joel Mordi, was awarded the Diana Legacy Award in recognition of his social action and humanitarian work. Joel founded the Mordi Ibe Foundation, Nigeria's only charity catering for LGBTQ+ and other vulnerable students to keep them in school, including young people experiencing period poverty. The foundation has so far impacted over 100,000 young people.

For creating “Invisible Threads,” a work that changes how music is usually experienced by employing a spatially shifting ensemble of 12 musicians and encouraging its audience to roam the performance space throughout its 70 minutes, composer and University of York music graduate, Christian Mason, received the 2025 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition.

Nick Gill, who is co-founder of Thin Ice Press: York Centre for Print and runs his own typecasting business, Effra Press, was named England Maker of the Year at the Heritage Craft Awards 2024 for his contributions to supporting and preserving the endangered crafts of letterpress printing and type casting. Nick is also Printer in Residence at the University of York’s Department of English and Related Literature and teaches on the MA module in letterpress printing, as well as supporting the AHRC-funded Print Matters project.

Dr Fran Allfrey has been named Wikimedian of the Year, an annual award that honors Wikipedia editors. Dr Allfrey, from the Department of Archaeology, was recognised for her research paper, Forging the medieval on wikipedia, which addressed Wikipedia’s impact on public understanding of the past, particularly our medieval pasts.

The award also acknowledged the ongoing project, the Avebury Papers, a study that aims to bring 5,000 years of history to life through digitising the archives of the Avebury World Heritage Site and making it open access for the first time.

Appointments

Dr Inês Martins, of York’s Department of Biology, was awarded a prestigious University Research Fellowship (URF) from the Royal Society. Dr Martins, who is also part of the University’s Leverhulme Centre for Anthropocene Biodiversity (LCAB), conducts research exploring how biodiversity is changing across the globe. She uses scientific theories and data from nature to measure biodiversity over different areas and periods and looks at the factors driving change and what they mean for the planet.

Professor of Health Economics, Mark Sculpher, was elected as Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences. As one of 58 Fellows elected in 2024, the award recognises Professor Sculpher’s contributions to developments in health sciences research that have translated into benefits for patients and wider society.

Dr Helen Anderson was given the prestigious title of Queen’s Nurse (QN) by community nursing charity The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI). The title indicates a commitment to high standards of patient care, learning and leadership. Nurses who hold the title benefit from developmental workshops, bursaries and networking opportunities.

The BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) revealed University of York academic, Dr Janine Bradbury as a 2024 New Generation Thinker. From hundreds of applications, ten New Generation Thinkers are selected and represent some of the best early career researchers in the country. They are given the opportunity to share their pioneering research with BBC Radio 4 listeners, as well as being provided with unique access to training and support from AHRC and the BBC.

Richard Walker (Assistant Director, Library, Archives and Learning Services) and Lorraine Farrelly (Head of the York School of Architecture) have been awarded HEA Principal Fellowship in recognition of their strategic impact on learning and teaching. Richard and Lorraine are the first individuals to be awarded Principal Fellowship through the York Professional and Academic Development Scheme.

Professor Simon Gilbody was recognised in the top one per cent of the world’s most influential published scientists. Clarivate™, a global provider of data, insights & analytics, announced the 2024 scientists and social scientists, who demonstrated significant and broad influence in their field of research. Each researcher selected has authored multiple Highly Cited Papers™ which rank in the top 1% by citations for their field and publication year in the Web of Science™ over the past decade.

Team recognition

York students who made outstanding contributions to the local area were celebrated at the Student Community and Volunteering Awards. The award winning York Students in Schools programme (YSIS) was congratulated as it celebrates its 30th birthday with students contributing nearly half a million hours to volunteering in York schools. The volunteers recognised at the awards were nominated by 27 diverse host organisations across York, reflecting the variety of skills and general enthusiasm the University’s students bring to the community.

The leadership and management of the University’s programmes for teacher training was rated as ‘outstanding’, alongside a ‘good’ rating for quality of education by Ofsted. The report for the University's initial teacher training (ITT) provision highlights that York trainees were given the training and support that they need to succeed. The report noted that course leaders demonstrated commitment to educational research, with “seamless interweaving of education theories and research into the subject-specific aspects of the curriculum,” which they state made the experiences of trainees distinctive.

The University of York’s IT Services picked up the Sustainable Digital Project or Initiative Award at the prestigious Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) awards. The awards celebrate “innovative activities that provide exceptional value to their institution, while demonstrating a positive environmental sustainability impact for the future”. York clinched the award for delivering a number of high impact IT initiatives in support of the institution's ambitious vision to be carbon neutral by 2030.

The Department of Chemistry was awarded Gold by Athena SWAN - a standard they have held since 2007 - and the Department of Biology also achieved Gold - a standard they have held since 2014; the latest award will be held until its renewal in 2029. The Athena Swan Charter is a framework that is used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research. A Gold award is the highest level achievable. The Department of Archaeology, the Department of English and Related Literature, and the School of Physics, Engineering and Technology all achieved the Silver standard award.

For the third year running, a team at the University has won a national Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE) from Advance HE. This year, the honour was awarded to the Environmental Sustainability at York - York Interdisciplinary Modules (ESAY-YIMs) team in recognition of their value-based approach to collaborative, interdisciplinary programme design, teaching and learning.

To read more of our sucesses stories visit our Annual Review pages.