Wadham Academics granted Damehood

The Queen's Birthday Honours 2022 revealed recognition for two Wadham academics. Fellow Fiona Powrie and Honorary Fellow Sally Mapstone were both granted the title, Dame Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire (DBE).

The announcement describes their achievements as listed below.

Fiona Powrie has made major contributions to our understanding of the immune system. Her early work provided very important support for the existence of regulatory T lymphocytes, adding very strong data so that it is now universally accepted. Turning her attention to the gut, she has been a leader in working out how the bacterial content interacts with the immune system. Her scientific contribution is unique and has been transformational to our understanding of how the gut bacteria and the immune system interact.

She has taken this basic research in a translational direction and with her clinical colleagues is actively applying her discoveries to the management of inflammatory bowel disease. Her work has implications for bowel cancer. She has emerged as a very strong scientific leader and inspirational role model for the many young women beginning careers in biomedical science. She was appointed a Governor of the Wellcome Trust in 2018, becoming Deputy Chair in 2022.

Sally Mapstone is the greatest living expert on Older Scots, recognised through her appointment as the first female President of the Saltire Society in 2018. As Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Oxford from 2011-16 and Deputy-Chair of Council, she led the creation of Oxford’s Strategic Plan for 2013-18. Later appointed as Principal of St Andrew’s, she led the creation of the University Strategy for 2018-23, which resulted in its attainment of first place in The Times Good University Guide for 2022.

She leads on widening access work at Universities Scotland; her successes include the development of an access guarantee for care-experienced applicants. Outwith the UK, she chaired the International Advisory Board for the University of Helsinki and is a trustee of the Europaeum.