Glittering prizes

Chad Varah, founder of the Samaritans, will be awarded an honorary doctorate of arts by the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside in July.

Joe Biddlestone, professor of chemical engineering and dean of engineering at the University of Birmingham, has received the Arnold Greene Medal for 1999 awarded by the Institution of Chemical Engineers in recognition of his service as chair of the accreditation committee.

Kerry Gardiner, senior lecturer and head of occupational hygiene at Birmingham, has been elected president of the

British Occupational Hygiene Society.

Eiran Jones, professor in the school of mathematics and statistics at the University of Plymouth, is to become president of the British Society of Rheology in September. The society was set up to provide a theoretical base to predict the effect of additives on flow behaviour of fluids.

Mike Denham, Invensys professor in the Centre for Neural and Adaptive Systems at Plymouth, has been elected to the board of governors of the International Neural Network Society. He is one of only two United Kingdom members of the society. The other is John Taylor, professor of mathematics at King's College, London.

Keith Miller, professor in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of

Sheffield, has been awarded "eminent speaker" status by the Australian Institution of Engineers. The title, awarded annually, involves his travelling to Australia to give lectures and seminars.

He has also received an Invitation Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, which will involve collaboration with several Japanese research centres.