Top New Year Honours for Imperial academics

Professor Dame Carol Propper

A leading Imperial economist is made a Dame in the 2021 New Year Honours, which also recognise an engineer, a neurologist and a medic from Imperial.

Professor Dame Carol Propper from Imperial College Business School has received a Damehood for her contribution to economics and public health.

Also recognised is Visiting Professor Raad Shakir from the Department of Brain Sciences, who receives a CBE for services to global neurology. Visiting Professor James Calder, from the Department of Bioengineering, receives an OBE for services to sport and to exercise. Dr Azeem Alam, an honorary clinical research fellow in the Department of Surgery and Cancer, has been awarded a British Empire Medal for outstanding contributions to medical education during COVID-19. Professor Carlton Evans, from the Department of Infectious Disease, has been given an MBE for services to global health.

Professor Dame Carol Propper

Professor Propper's research has focused on how to improve the quality of healthcare and the link between economic circumstances and health.

"I’ve long championed the applicability of economics to healthcare and have enjoyed many collaborations with researchers from both inside and outside economics as we try to solve complex issues in this field." Professor Dame Carol Propper Imperial College Business School

Her work has shown that competition between hospitals improves managerial quality in the NHS and her current research examines the impact of CEOs in the NHS on hospital performance.

Her work also addresses issues such as hospital waiting times, the challenges of centralised pay including nurses’ pay, the struggle to recruit and retain healthcare workers in hospitals in high cost areas such as London and the South East and the impact of recessions on long term health conditions.

Dame Carol has supported the economic community, and been a key voice on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the NHS, since the start of the crisis. Her recent papers have addressed a number of issues including the economic costs of lockdown, spending needs relating to healthcare and the coronavirus and the future of the NHS after the pandemic.

In her public life, Dame Carol has championed the need for greater diversity among the economics community. In her role as President of the Royal Economic Society, she inititated a recent report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies which showed that black economists are 64 percent less likely to work for Russell Group universities than their white peers. Dame Carol is a Fellow of the British Academy, the US National Academy of Medicine, and the CEPR and a member of President Macron of France’s expert commission on major economic challenges.

Dame Carol said: “I am thrilled to have been awarded a DBE for my contribution to Economics and Public Health. Much of my research career has been focused on understanding how people and organisations respond to incentives in the field of healthcare.

“I’ve long championed the applicability of economics to healthcare and have enjoyed many collaborations with researchers from both inside and outside economics as we try to solve complex issues in this field. I have also been privileged to be able to work with wonderful colleagues in the Royal Economic Society, the British Academy, the Economic and Social Research Council and CEPR to promote social sciences in Britain and worldwide and to support greater diversity in academia.”

Dr Azeem Alam