Three members of Imperial's community have been celebrated in the King's Birthday Honours list for this year.
The list for 2025, which was published as part of the King's Official Birthday celebrations, honours three academics from Imperial College London for their achievements in scientific and medical research.
The recipients for Imperial this year are:
- Professor Vernon Gibson, Visiting Professor from the Department of Materials, receives a knighthood for services to science and defence.
- Professor Dafydd Thomas, Professor Emeritus of Clinical Neuroscience in the Faculty of Medicine, receives an OBE for services to clinical neuroscience.
- Professor Pankaj Sharma, Principal Clinical Teacher in the Faculty of Medicine, receives an OBE for services to research in strokes in South Asian people.
Professor Sir Vernon Gibson KBE
Professor Sir Vernon Gibson is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Materials. He spent two periods as Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Defence (2012-2016 and 2023-24) and time in No10 as an adviser to the Integrated Review Taskforce (2020). Prior to his Government work he was a Chief Scientist at BP (2008-2012) and The Sir Edward Frankland Professor of Inorganic Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry.
Professor Gibson spent almost 30 years as an academic scientist pursuing a research career that took him from the University of Oxford to the California Institute of Technology, to the University of Durham and finally to Imperial College London. His field of expertise is molecular organometallic chemistry, which he studied from fundamental and applied industrial perspectives. His contributions have been recognised with numerous awards and by his election to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 2004.
Throughout his academic career he has worked closely with industry, developing a deep and flexible partnership with BP which led to the setting up of a pioneering joint discovery project at Imperial. He played an instrumental role in establishing BP's International Centre for Advanced Materials, a 10-year, $100M investment at Imperial and the Universities of Manchester, Cambridge, Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Professor Gibson now draws on his experience of science and technology across academia, industry and government to foster partnerships at the interfaces of these sectors.
Professor Gibson said: ""I feel greatly privileged to be honoured in this way and pay tribute to the many talented scientists and engineers who I've been fortunate to work alongside in academia, industry and government."
Professor Dafydd Thomas OBE
Professor Dafydd Thomas is Professor Emeritus of Clinical Neurosciences at Imperial College London, having previously served as Professor of Stroke Medicine from 2005 to 2006. He was Chairman of St Mary's Therapy & Imaging Ltd from 2006 to 2015.
Educated at Alleyn's School and Clare College, Cambridge, he earned his BA in Natural Sciences in 1966, followed by a BChir in 1969, and MA and MB in 1970. He obtained his MD from the University of Birmingham Medical School in 1977.
After achieving MRCP in 1972 and FRCP in 1985, he held consultant neurologist posts across several hospitals from 1978 to 2000, including King Edward VII Hospital, Windsor, and Wexham Park Hospital, Slough. He was Senior Consultant Neurologist at St Mary's Hospital, London (1978–2006), Senior Lecturer in Neurology at the Institute of Neurology, and Honorary Consultant Neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Chalfont Centre for Epilepsy.
"It is very gratifying to realise that my clinical and research efforts (always as part of a team) in improving the prevention of stroke and the treatment of acute stroke have been appreciated." Professor Dafydd Thomas Faculty of Medicine
Professor Thomas was Director of D-Gen Ltd (an IC spinout company) from 2000-2025 and Chairman of St Mary's Development Trust 2016- 2025. He served in numerous advisory and leadership roles, including Secretary and Chairman of the Royal College of Physicians' Special Advisory Committee on Neurology (1985–91). He was a long-standing member of national and international stroke associations and served on the boards of several neurological charities. He was President of the Medical Society of London (2019–20) and Chairman of the St Mary's Development Trust from 2016.
He has authored several notable medical texts, including Strokes and their Prevention (1988), The Eye and Systemic Disease (1989), and Neurology: What Shall I Do? (1990; 2nd ed. 1997), as well as numerous papers on cerebrovascular and neurological diseases.
Professor Thomas said: "It is very gratifying to realise that my clinical and research efforts (always as part of a team) in improving the prevention of stroke and the treatment of acute stroke have been appreciated.
"I am so pleased that Imperial now offers one of the very best stroke services in the Country with an increasing academic stroke research initiative, which I have been keen to support via the St Mary's Development Trust. A big 'Thank you' to all my ex-colleagues!"
Professor Pankaj Sharma OBE
Professor Pankaj Sharma is a Principal Clinical Teacher in the Faculty of Medicine at Imperial and the Director of the Institute of Cardiovascular Research at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Professor Sharma's work has focused on identifying genes for stroke, particularly in people of South Asian heritage. His research programme started during his Department of Health New Blood Senior Fellowship award as a Senior Lecturer and then Reader at Imperial College London, and later his appointment as Professor of Neurology at the University of London. He is currently a consultant neurologist at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and was formerly the head of the Imperial College Cerebrovascular Research Unit (ICCRU).
His OBE has been awarded for two decades of research work on strokes in the British South Asian population – a population that is often understudied but has a high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality risk.
"It is a privilege to be recognised for the quiet but dedicated work that my group and I have been undertaking for so many years in understanding and trying to improve the health of British South Asians." Professor Pankaj Sharma Faculty of Medicine
Professor Sharma has worked to create the world's largest biobank (BRAINS - BioRepository for DNA in Stroke) for stroke among South Asian people, which has allowed detailed study of the causes and consequences of why stroke is so prevalent in this population. It is expected that this work will generate further important data for years to come.
Professor Sharma said: "It is a privilege to be recognised for the quiet but dedicated work that my group and I have been undertaking for so many years in understanding and trying to improve the health of British South Asians.
"BRAINS, likely the world's largest biobank for South Asian stroke involved recruiting patients from throughout the UK as well as India, Sri Lanka and the Middle East. My greatest thanks go to all those patients without whom this work would not have been possible."
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Two former members of Imperial's community have also received honours in this year's list.
- Chi Onwurah MP, who graduated from Imperial in 1987 with a degree in Electrical Engineering, receives an OBE.
- Professor Gordon Dougan, now at the University of Cambridge, who was the founding Director of the Centre for Molecular Microbiology and Infection at Imperial, receives an OBE.
