The 2012 New Year Honours List has bestowed prestigious accolades upon two prominent University figures.
Eileen Thornton, Head of the Institute of Learning and Teaching in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, has been appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for services to healthcare education and training.
Eileen, who has worked at the University for 20 years, has research interest in inter-professional learning in health care education, the role of Continuing Professional Development in maintaining competence to practice in health–care professionals, professional self-regulation related to standard setting for education, and training, practice, conduct and ethics for health care professionals.
Eileen said: “I’m absolutely thrilled and very honoured to receive the CBE. It was a total surprise and I had no idea that I had been nominated until I received the official notification. It is the highlight of my professional career.”
Pro-Chancellor of the University, Professor James (Jim) Keaton, has been appointed Member of the British Empire (MBE) for his services to heritage in the North West.
Former Director of ICI Organics Division, Professor Keaton, who has been Pro-Chancellor since 2010, is also Chairman of the University of Liverpool Management School Advisory Board, Trustee of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Chairman of Governors for Upton Hall Grammar School and Chairman of the National Trust North West Regional Board.
Gideon Ben-Tovim, a former Reader in the Department of Sociology and honorary member of staff at this University, who is now Chair of the Liverpool Primary Care Trust, was awarded an OBE in the New Year Honours for services to the NHS.
The list also included graduate Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, Professor of the History of the Church, University of Oxford, who was knighted for his services to scholarship. He was awarded a Diploma in the Study of Records and the Administration of Archives in 1973. He is the second student from the School of History to be knighted within the last ten years with Sir Ian Kershaw being the first, in 2002.
Also honoured was Dr James Kingsland, (MBChB 1984), a General Practitioner and President of the National Association of Primary Care and a Non Executive Director of the Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology NHS Foundation Trust, who was awarded an OBE for services to General Practice.