Pembroke Alumni Recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Professor Sir John Aston (1995) and Professor Tom Shakespeare (1984) have both been awarded honours in the 2021 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Sir John Aston, Harding Professor of Statistics in Public Life at the University of Cambridge, has been knighted for services to Statistics and Public Policymaking. Sir John read Mathematics at Pembroke, before studying for a PhD in statistics at Imperial College and McGill University.

He took up the Harding Professorship on 1st January 2021 after stepping down from secondment as Chief Scientific Officer and Director-General for Science, Technology, Analysis, Research and Strategy at the Home Office. He championed the use of science and research across the department, and latterly played a central role in the Home Office’s response to COVID-19.

Sir John's work in statistical neuroimaging (analysing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data, which gives information about brain activity) has become a standard reference, supporting scientific research.

Tom Shakespeare, Professor of Disability Research at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), has been awarded a CBE for services to Disability Research. Tom read Social and Political Sciences at Pembroke, before moving to Kings to take his MPhil and PhD.

Tom teaches on disability and development, including disability rights, sexual and reproductive health of disabled people, disability and mental health. He is co-director of the International Centre for Evidence in Disability at LSHTM, and co-director of the PENDA programme of impact analyses of interventions to improve the lives of disabled people in low and middle-income countries.

As well as co-authoring the World Report on Disability in 2011, while working as a technical officer at the World Health Organisation, Tom has written a number of books, including the Sexual Politics of Disability (1996); Disability Rights and Wrongs (2006; 2014); Disability - the Basics (2017).

Photos

Professor Sir John Aston, copyright: University of Cambridge

Professor Tom Shakespeare CBE FBA, taken when he spoke at the 2018 William Pitt Seminar