Professor Trevor McMillan, Vice-Chancellor of Keele University, has been awarded an OBE for services to higher education in the Queen's Jubilee Birthday Honours, which mark the extraordinary contributions and service of people across the United Kingdom.

Professor McMillan was awarded a PhD in Biophysics at the Institute of Cancer Research, University of London, in 1984. He spent three years at the Imperial Cancer Research Fund and then headed a laboratory in a department that was jointly run between the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital.

As a radiation biologist, Professor McMillan has published widely on the role of DNA damage and repair in the efficacy of radiotherapy and the harmful cellular effects of UVA following environmentally relevant exposures. He has taught at all levels in universities and to medical professionals around the world on the biological basis of cancer treatments. On the basis of this he was made an Honorary Member of the Royal College of Physicians and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists.

Professor McMillan held a variety of roles at Lancaster University, culminating with eight years as Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Research, and has been Vice-Chancellor of Keele University since 2015.

Nationally, he is the Knowledge Exchange Champion for Research England. He was chair of the Knowledge Exchange Framework Steering Group and continues as chair of the Knowledge Exchange Concordat Strategy group. He published guidance on technology transfer from universities which has had a significant impact on the performance of knowledge exchange in the UK higher education sector, and has been supported by government.

Speaking of the honour, Professor McMillan said: “This really is an enormous honour that I am very proud to receive. A major part of leadership in universities is to create an environment that gives opportunities for staff, students and the communities of people and organisations that you work with to do wonderful things. I have been lucky to be surrounded by people who have been fantastic in what they have achieved, and I can only hope that I have had a small role in enabling that.”

Professor McMillan chairs the Midlands Innovation board and is a member of the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Local Enterprise Partnership board and the board of the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System. He also chairs Network Staffordshire.