Welsh researchers honoured in King’s Birthday Honour’s list

Two Welsh researchers have been honoured for their pioneering contributions to their fields in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours list.

Iain Whitaker, Chair of Plastic Surgery at Swansea University Medical School and Honorary Consultant Plastic Surgeon at Morriston Hospital, and David Ford, co-director of SAIL Databank, were given OBEs for services to plastic surgery and social science respectively.

Professor Whitaker, former Surgical Specialty Lead for Health and Care Research Wales, is the founding director of The ReconRegen Research Centre, where his team explores advanced fields such as tissue engineering and the use of artificial intelligence.

In 2022, a £2.5 million research programme was officially launched by the Duchess of Edinburgh at the centre, funded by the Scar Free Foundation and Health and Care Research Wales.

Professor Whitaker currently heads the £2.07 million 3D Bioface research programme, which explores bioprinting human cartilage for facial reconstruction.

Professor Whitaker said: “I am thankful to receive recognition for more than 20 years of work within the specialty of plastic surgery and would like to thank all those involved in my nomination and acknowledge that this is also a reflection of the achievements and contributions of the organisations, communities and individuals that I work with.”

Professor David Ford is the co-founder and co-director of SAIL Databank, a world-leading Secure Anonymised Information Linkage resource which is  funded by Health and Care Research Wales, and the Secure e-Research Platform (SeRP), which contains billions of person-based records.  

In 2024 the contribution of the SAIL Databank to the harnessing of public data to improve population health and wellbeing  led to Swansea University being awarded a prestigious Queen’s Anniversary Prize.

Professor Ford, who is professor of informatics and director of  Population Data Science at Swansea University Medical School, was also included in DataIQ 100 most influential people in data and analytics for 2021.

Professor Ford said: “I am both surprised and delighted to be awarded this honour.  I never for a moment thought I would be in the running for one! 

“Of course, while I am absolutely thrilled to receive it, I am very conscious that any successes associated with me over the years were only possible through the hard work and dedication of a lot of very clever colleagues. It is with them I share this award.”

Gareth Cross, Deputy Director of Science, Research and Evidence at Welsh Government said: “It's wonderful to see Welsh researchers recognised at this level. Their work highlights the importance of research in improving lives and showcases the strength, dedication and innovation found across Wales' research community.”