Pioneering female leaders are among a host of senior academics and administrators recognised in the UK¡¯s New Year Honours list.

Julie Lydon, who retired as vice-chancellor of the University of South Wales in September, receives a damehood for services to higher education. As vice-chancellor of the University of Glamorgan since 2010, she led the merger that formed USW in 2013 and also served as chair of Universities Wales and vice-president of Universities UK.

Sarah Springman, rector of ETH Zurich and a professor of geotechnical engineering, receives a damehood for services to engineering and to international sports administration, as a former elite triathlete who served as vice-president of the International Triathlon Union twice and president of British Triathlon. In February she will become principal of St Hilda¡¯s College, Oxford.

Covid-19 experts figure prominently in the list once more. Chris Whitty, chief medical adviser to the Westminster government, and honorary professor of public and international health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is knighted. Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser and a former head of the Division of Medicine at UCL, becomes a knight commander of the Order of the Bath.

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Sir Paul Nurse, director of the Francis Crick Institute and a Nobel-prizewinning physicist, becomes a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to science and medicine.

There were honours for a host of vice-chancellors. Anthony Finkelstein, who became president of City, University of London earlier this year, is knighted for his work in his previous role as chief scientific adviser for national security.

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There are CBEs for Graham Galbraith of the University of Portsmouth, Kathryn Mitchell of the University of Derby, and Malcolm Press of Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as David Llewellyn, lately vice-chancellor of Harper Adams University. Paul Croney, vice-chancellor of Teesside University, is appointed?OBE.

Leadership of sector organisations is also recognised: Alistair Jarvis, who will step down as chief executive of Universities UK in June to become pro vice-chancellor of partnerships and governance at the University of London, is appointed CBE for services to higher education, particularly during Covid-19.

Sally Hunt, who was general secretary of the University and College Union from its formation in 2007 until she stepped down for health reasons in 2019, is appointed OBE for services to industrial relations.

Other academics who receive knighthoods include?Lord Kakkar, who as Ajay Kakkar is professor of surgery at UCL, and John Hardy, chair of the molecular biology of neurological disease, also at UCL.

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pola.lem@timeshighereducation.com