Brian Cox and others to be awarded honorary degrees from Warwick

Professor Brian Cox, alongside others, is to be awarded an honorary degree by the University of Warwick in the upcoming winter degree ceremonies.

Aside from the Professor Cox, who will be awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science (Hon DSc) for his services to science, the physicist will be joined by other industry leaders including: Rashid Bhayat, Founder and CEO of Positive Youth Foundation; and Ken Follett CBE, a successful and world-renowned author.

Professor Brian Cox
Despite developing an early interest in physics from reading Carl Sagan’s book at the age of 12 and watching the TV series Cosmos, Professor Cox’s first career was in rock music. Playing the keyboard for the rock band Dare and later D:Ream, which produced a number of hits including the number one ‘Things Can Only Get Better’, Cox completed and achieved a first-class honours degree in physics at the University of Manchester. After completing his PhD in 1998 for his work at the Hadron Elektron Ring Anlage (HERA), he went on to become a member of the high energy physics group at Manchester University and led the “FP420” project, which sought to justify the case for installing low-angle proton detectors at CERN.

Rashid Bhayat
Following the establishment of his first social venture in the hope to work alongside young people in one of the UK’s most challenging neighbourhoods at the age of 17 in 1997. Mr Bhayat has since founded the Positive Youth Foundation, which seeks to design and implement change in programmes for vulnerable young people and communities from a local, regional and national level. He has also supported social enterprise development, public service transformation and wider social impact programmes.

Ken Follett CBE
Before becoming a successful and world-renowned author, Ken Follett started life as the son of a tax inspector in Cardiff where he was educated in state schools before later graduating from University College London, with an Honours degree in Philosophy. He started his career as a reporter at the South Wales Echo and then with the London Evening News. Consequently, he became a Deputy Managing Director at Everest Books, a London publishing house. His first major success came with the publication of Eye of the Needle in 1978, which won the 1979 Edgar Award for Best Novel. His most recent book is A Column of Fire (2017), which is a historical novel about species and secret agents in the 16th century.

Other individuals who are included on Warwick University’s honours list include: Brendon Batson OBE, an ex-football player who played at West Bromwich Albion; Ritula Shah, an award-winning BBC journalist and broadcaster; and Dame Fiona Kendrick DBE, Chairman of Nestlé UK.