Wendy Bickmore, geneticist in the Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit in Edinburgh, has been awarded a $1 million (Pounds 570,000) James S. McDonnell Centennial Fellowship in human genetics for combining excellent research with an ability to communicate it to the public. She is the only UK winner of a centennial fellowship from the Missouri-based foundation, which awards more than $20 million (about Pounds 11.4 million) each year to further biomedical and behavioural research and public understanding of science.
Vitaly Strusevich, reader in operational research in the school of computing and mathematical sciences at the University of Greenwich, has been awarded the biennial state prize in science and technology from the Republic of Belarus.
The University of Glasgow is to award honorary degrees this year to: Sir John Arbuthnott, principal of the University of Strathclyde; Alfred Bader, founder of the Aldrich Chemical Company; Roderick Fisher Campbell, professor in the department of biomedical and tropical veterinary sciences at James Cook University of North Queensland; John Coppock, secretary and treasurer at the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland; Jack Dunitz, former professor of chemical crystallography, Zurich University; Duncan Forrester, professor of Christian ethics and practical theology, University of Edinburgh; Julian Hart, pioneering general practitioner; Sir Russell Hillhouse, former permanent under secretary of state and head of the Scottish Office; Sir John Kerr, permanent under secretary of state at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; artist Bet Low; Neil MacCormick, professor of public law, University of Edinburgh; John McCormick, controller, BBC Scotland; Sir Ghillean Prance, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Ian Robinson, chief executive, Scottish Power plc; Sir Stewart Sutherland, principal, University of Edinburgh; Richard Wilson, rector of the University of Glasgow.