Two people associated with the University of Lincoln have been recognised in the New Year’s honours list. Professor David Chiddick, the former vice-chancellor, and Professor Val Braybrooks, dean of the agriculture and food faculty, will be awarded with a CBE and MBE, respectively.
Chiddick retired at the end of 2009 after nine years in the job. He was in the top job at the university from 2000, overseeing its transformation from the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside and radical development of the Brayford campus. He is apparently “delighted” at the award.
Braybrooks is similarly “thrilled and proud” with being awarded the MBE. She has led the development of the National Centre for Food Manufacturing at the Holbeach campus, and Professor Mary Stuart, the university’s vice-chancellor, says the honour is “well deserved”.
The awards are ranks in the Order of the British Empire, with CBE (Commander of the Order British Empire) the third rank, and MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) the fifth.
The honours system has come in for some criticism. In 2003 poet Benjamin Zephaniah refused an OBE, writing in the Guardian that: “I get angry when I hear that word “empire”; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised.”
Also included on the list this year are Patrick Stewart, an actor, and Jenson Button, a racing driver.