The Queen’s Birthday Honours list recognises the achievements and service of people across the UK, from all walks of life, was announced on 1st June and this year’s list includes one of our board directors, Professor James Andrew McLaughlin CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire).
Professor Jim McLaughlin, Head of School of Engineering & Director of the Nanotechnology and Integrated Bioengineering Centre (NIBEC) and Professor of Advanced Materials, Ulster University, has been awarded a CBE: For services to Higher Education and Research.
Professor McLaughlin, previously awarded an OBE for his services to Research and Economic Development in Northern Ireland, has made a distinguished and innovative impact on NI research development enhancing both economic prosperity and public health at a local, national and international level. He has attracted exceptional levels of investment, over £55m in his research areas, particularly nanotechnology and its application.
This includes a £50m investment by Randox Laboratories and Invest NI that has delivered cutting-edge technologies to diagnose conditions like cancer, heart conditions and infectious diseases through the three Centres of Excellence at Randox, UU and QUB.
He was pivotal in securing £7m for a strategic partnership between Invest NI, UU, Randox Laboratories and Heartsine Technologies to assist companies develop prototypes for the biomedical, engineering, electronic device and aerospace sectors.
He led his team to joint third place (and the best placed European entry) in the global $10m Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE Competition in Los Angeles.
Jim is playing a pioneering role in the delivery of the Belfast Region City Deal as the Project Lead for Centre for Digital Healthcare Technology (CDHT), which will provide a world-class space to boost productivity of the Life and Health Sciences sector, medical device and related sector activity in NI.
Jim is widely regarded as a leading expert in diagnostics and this was recognised at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic when he was appointed to the UKG led Rapid Test Consortium. He continues to play a vital role in the NI pandemic response, using his expertise to help develop a forecasting model for testing capacity at the request of the Government’s Modelling Task Force, as well as helping to develop an antibody test by leading Ulster’s PANDEMIC study.
Jim is a member of the EPSRC Peer Review College; NI Industry and Science Panel (MATRIX); NanoIreland Task Force/Chairs the Nanomaterials Panel, and US Ireland R&D Partnership.
He is on the advisory panel to MSSI; Innovate KTN Health Technology Advisory Board as well as numerous local organisations.
A full list of all the Queen’s Birthday Honours 2022 is available at this link.
