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Olympic champion and celebrated author among 2025 University Honours

Olympic champion and celebrated author among 2025 University Honours

Posted on 18 December 2024

Double Olympic triathlon champion, Alistair Brownlee; best selling author, Reni Eddo-Lodge; and MOBO award winning musician, Nitin Sawhney, are among six distinguished figures to receive honorary degrees from the University of York in January.

Alistair Brownlee is one of six honoured in the winter ceremonies

This year’s recipients of honorary degrees, which will be awarded as part of the University's winter graduation ceremonies, also include Founder of the Buzz Project and Professor of Food Science, Dr Ryad Alsous; Director of Policy, Research and Impact at the Trussell Trust, Helen Barnard; and structural engineer, author and broadcaster, Roma Agrawal.

The University of York confers the honorary degree of Doctor of the University honoris causa on individuals who have made outstanding contributions to society.

Alistair Brownlee is a double Olympic and multiple world, European and Commonwealth triathlon champion. While competing at the highest level he received a Sports Science and Physiology degree and an MSc in Finance.

He and his brother Jonny later established The Brownlee Foundation, which has since provided free triathlon experiences to over 65,000 primary school children. Alistair is a member of the IOC Athletes’ Commission, the Chair of the European Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission, and the author of Relentless: Secrets of the Sporting Elite.

Journalist, author and podcaster, Reni Eddo-Lodge, was the first black British author to top the UK's best-seller list with Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. A Sunday Times, New York Times and Der Spiegel bestseller, it won the Jhalak Prize, the Bread and Roses Award for Radical Publishing, and a British Book Award for Narrative nonfiction.

Her podcast - About Race with Reni Eddo-Lodge was chosen as one of the best podcasts of the year by Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Harper’s Bazaar UK, The Guardian, British GQ, and Wired UK.

Nitin Sawhney is a composer, producer and touring musician, scoring over 70 film & TV series, including Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and natural history series such as the BBC’s Human Planet.

As a solo artist he has received a Mercury Prize nomination and a MOBO award for his studio albums. He has worked with artists including Paul McCartney, Anoushka Shankar, Joss Stone, Jools Holland, Ellie Goulding and has recorded as a member of Pink Floyd.

Nitin has received more than 20 major national and international awards, including the 2017 Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award.

Syrian academic and expert beekeeper, Dr Ryad Alsous, was a Professor of Food Science at Damascus University in Syria and the founder of the University's Beekeeping Department Programme. In 2013, his family were forced to flee Syria, becoming refugees in the United Kingdom.

After resettling in Huddersfield, he used his love and knowledge of bees to establish the Buzz Project. Its aim is to help refugees and the long-term unemployed find a sense of purpose through beekeeping. Ryad continues to research breeding of Britain’s native black bee, while enabling his community to prosper and preserve nature sustainability.

Helen Barnard is Director of Policy, Research and Impact at the Trussell Trust. She was formerly Director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Research and Policy Director at Pro Bono Economics. Helen is a leading national expert on poverty, inequality and social policy.

Her extensive body of research and policy work have covered poverty, destitution, labour markets, housing, social security and civil society. She is author of ‘Want (Giants: a new Beveridge Report)’ which examines modern-day poverty and the institutions and reforms required to address it.

Structural engineer, author and broadcaster, Roma Agrawal, has worked on several major engineering projects, including the Shard in London. She has written four books about engineering as well as presented documentaries, TEDx talks, and is a motivational speaker.

In 2018 Agrawal was awarded an MBE and appointed a Fellow of the Institution of Structural Engineers. In 2021, she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Honorary degree ceremonies take place from Wednesday 8th to Friday 10th January 2025. If any media wish to attend, please contact the Press Office for further information.