New Years Honours for Leeds

Staff, alumni and a longstanding supporter of the University of Leeds are recognised in the New Year's Honours list.

Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor John Fisher receives a CBE and Head of Catering and Conferencing, Beverley Kenny, has been awarded an MBE. NASA astronaut and Leeds graduate Piers Sellers has received an OBE and Marjorie Ziff, a longstanding friend of the University, an MBE.

John Fisher, Professor of Mechanical Engineering, said he was delighted to have been made a CBE for his services to engineering. John has been at Leeds for 23 years and jointly heads the Institute for Mechanical and Biological Engineering (iMBE) with Professor Eileen Ingham. He said the award was as much for colleagues as it was for himself.

"This is recognition of many years of work in mechanical engineering at Leeds by a large group of people," he said.

Beverley Kenny manages the 200 staff who feed thousands of students and staff each day through the campus cafes and Refectory. They also help run academic and corporate conferences - and have even weddings - on campus.

Dr Sellers graduated with a PhD in biometereology in 1981 before joining astronaut corps. He was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 1996 and became only the third Briton to go into space when he joined the Atlantis Shuttle mission. He blasted into space again in 2006 and May 2010. He has returned to the Leeds campus to share stories of his space missions and was made an honorary graduate of Leeds in 2007. He receives an OBE for his services to science. "It is a tremendous honour, and I'm really glad that the whole business of spaceflight has been recognised in the UK," he told BBC News.

Marjorie Ziff receives an MBE for services to the community. An honorary graduate of Leeds, Marjorie and her late husband Arnold have been longstanding supporters of the University of Leeds and many other local organisations.