We are delighted to report that New Year Honours have been received by three members of the Worcester community for their services to mathematical research, public service and philanthropy.

Professor Roger Heath-Brown FRS, Emeritus Fellow of Worcester College, has been appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to Mathematics and Mathematical Research. Professor Heath-Brown’s work lies in analytic number theory and Diophantine analysis. In particular, he works on prime numbers, exponential sums, the determinant method, and the circle method. He was educated at Cambridge (a student of Alan Baker) and moved to Oxford in 1979. He was made FRS in 1993, and was twice a speaker at the International Congress of Mathematicians. He remained at Oxford throughout his career, first at Magdalen College before moving to Worcester to take up his statutory professorship in 1999. He retired in 2016. Among his many graduate students was James Maynard, who was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022.

An OBE has also been conferred on Old Member David Sprackling (1993, MSt Theology), a lawyer working in the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, for public service. Lady Susan Sainsbury – a great friend of the College and wife of Honorary Fellow Sir Timothy Sainsbury – has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of her services to charity and philanthropy.

We warmly congratulate David, Roger and Lady Susan on their honours.

Roger Heath-Brown photo credit: Simon Winner