Professor Dame Janet Beer, Vice-Chancellor of the University, Professor David MacEwan, Head of the University’s Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology and Lord Derby, President of Council, have been presented with the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education on behalf of the University in a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace.
The prize, the highest accolade for any academic institution, was awarded by HRH Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in recognition of Liverpool’s pioneering work to improve the safety and effectiveness of medicines, including our research into HIV nanomedicines which has the potential to change the lives of babies and children living with HIV and AIDS.
The Queen’s Anniversary Prize, which is part of the UK honours system, is given biennially to institutions across the UK, recognising excellence in a number of key academic areas which have had impact on society and the wider community.
The Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, in the Institute of Translational Medicine, one of the oldest and largest in the UK, has an international reputation for understanding all aspects of drug actions from designing and creating novel drugs, running clinical trials on new drugs, through to improving the use of existing drugs.
It leads the world in understanding, predicting, and tackling adverse drug reactions and has developed tools that are used globally by physicians to avoid adverse drug reactions in susceptible patients delivering huge impact in the care of millions of patients worldwide.
Welcoming the award, Professor Dame Janet Beer, said: “I am delighted to accept this prestigious award which recognises work of outstanding importance and quality in higher and further education. This is an enormous honour for the Department and a credit to the the deep and far-reaching impact of research being carried out by the team.”
Professor David MacEwan, Head of Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, said: “This award is a wonderful tribute to the hard work and level of excellence achieved by all staff and students in the Department, in teaching and research.”