King's College London

Professor Ann McNeill, Professor of Tobacco Addiction in the Department of Addictions, has been awarded a CBE for Services to Addiction and Mental Health.

Professor McNeill has worked on tobacco and nicotine research tirelessly for over 40 years. Her early research examined young people’s dependence on smoking and then expanded to include smoking cessation and the application of a range of tobacco control policies and interventions, including harm reduction strategies, to reduce both individual and population level impacts of smoking.

She has a particular interest in reducing the health inequalities caused by smoking, notably among people with mental health conditions, and co-chaired the Mental Health & Smoking Partnership, a coalition of stakeholders, led by the charity Action on Smoking and Health, for 10 years. Professor McNeill has published more than 450 peer-reviewed publications, and her research has informed national- and local-level policies to reduce smoking. 

Professor Jennifer Rubin, Chair of the Advisory Board of the School for Government, has received an CBE for Services to Science and Analysis.

Professor Rubin's principal research interests include migration, integration and intolerance; communities, crime and justice policy; and the intersections between public health and related areas such as alcohol and drugs policy.

Prior to her role as Advisory Board Chair of the School for Government, she was Director of the Policy Institute at King’s. From 2021 to 2025, she served as Home Office Director General, Science, Technology, Analysis and Research (STAR) and Home Office Chief Scientific Adviser. Before joining the Home Office, she was the Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council, the UK’s largest funder of economic and social research. Professor Rubin also built and led the justice and home affairs research programme at RAND Europe for 10 years.

Professor Paul Mizen, Vice Dean at King’s Business School, has been awarded an OBE for Services to Economic Research and Public Policy.

Professor Mizen's work focuses on the use of economic statistics to support monetary and fiscal policy, corporate investment and productivity, and this has helped to inform public policy.

He is principal investigator and co-founder of the ESRC Decision Maker Panel in collaboration with the Bank of England and University of Nottingham. This survey collects detailed information about senior executives' expectations and the economic conditions facing their businesses. It has provided valuable information for policymakers at the Bank of England and government including 10 Downing St, Cabinet Office, COBRA, HM Treasury, Office for Budget Responsibility, and the Low Pay Commission.

Professor Tara Frances Renton, Emeritus Professor in Oral Surgery, has received an OBE for Services to Dentistry.

Professor Renton is a dental specialist in oral surgery with 40 years’ experience in complex oral surgery cases. 

Her maxillofacial training and PhD in neuroscience in Trigeminal nerve injuries has established her an international lead in orofacial pain and prevention of Trigeminal post-traumatic neuropathic pain.

Professor Kei (Kwangwook) Cho, Professor of Neuroscience in the Department of Basic and Clinical Neuroscience, has been awarded an MBE for Services to UK/Korea Relations in the areas of Science and Health.

Professor Cho leads the Synapse and Therapeutic Discovery Laboratory. Over the last 20 years, he has identified several potential mechanistic targets for curtailing synapse weakening (the brain's natural process for decreasing the strength of connections between neurons). He is interested in the consequence of physiological and pathophysiological synapse weakening in excitatory neurons (nerve cells that activate other neurons) in the brain with respect to the functional and structural modification of the synapse.

Professor Cho explores how aberrant synapse weakening is expressed and what the physiological and pathological consequences might be and identify therapeutic target for neurodegenerative disease, specifically dementia.

Mr Lorenzo Garagnani, Honorary Reader in the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, receives an MBE for Services to Children with Hand and Upper Limb Differences.

Mr Garagnani is a Consultant Orthopaedic Hand and Wrist Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and Departmental Lead for Undergraduate Medical Education in Orthopaedics at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, where he coordinates the King's medical students' rotations in Orthopaedics and Hand Surgery.

His work has included not only surgical services and research, with development of less invasive surgical techniques, but he also helped establish the UK’s first Clinical Genetics - Hand Surgery and Therapies outpatient clinic at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, where patients affected by hand and upper limb differences from the pre-natal age through the entire childhood and adult life can be simultaneously assessed by all members of the team in order to optimise communication, allow for an integrated assessment and reduce the number of hospital appointments, providing a highly specialised service.

I. Stephanie Boyce, a member of King's Impact Leaders Board and Honorary Professor of Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, received a CBE for Services to the Legal Profession and to Diversity, and to Access to Justice.

Stephanie was admitted as a solicitor in 2002 and has a wealth of experience in corporate governance, regulatory frameworks and professional regulation.

In March 2021, she made history as the 177th President of the Law Society of England and Wales, becoming the first person of colour and the sixth woman to hold the position. Her presidency coincided with significant events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and the war in Ukraine. She is credited with providing steady leadership during these turbulent times.

Professor Julia Verne, Visiting Professor of Public Health approaches to Palliative Care and Hepatology at the Cicely Saunders Institute (CSI), has been awarded an MBE for Services to End of Life Care and Public Health.

Professor Verne strongly advocates for a holistic approach to caring for people at the end of life. She has collaborated with colleagues at the CSI for over 10 years, drawing on her expertise as a Consultant in Public Health Medicine and previous national roles, including clinical lead for the National End of Life Care National Intelligence Network and the Department for Health and Social Care’s Clinical Epidemiology lead.

Professor Verne has a special interest in end of life care for people dying from liver disease and has collaborated with liver disease experts at the Roger Williams Institute of Liver Studies at King’s and King's College Hospital. She shares her wealth of expertise teaching on the MSc in Palliative care at King’s.

In 2025 Professor Verne started voluntary work as an Honorary Assistant Chaplain at King's College Hospital where she offers comfort and support to patients and families of faith and no faith as they face often significant worries and fear related to their health and wellbeing.