Professor Dame Molly Stevens receives Honorary Doctorate and joins Wellcome Board of Governors
Professor Dame Molly Stevens, Supernumerary Fellow at Exeter College and John Black Professor of Bionanoscience at the University of Oxford, has received two significant honours in recognition of her contributions to scientific innovation and healthcare. She has been named as a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Twente in the Netherlands and appointed to Wellcome’s Board of Governors.
The University of Twente awards honorary doctorates every five years to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and society. Professor Stevens was selected as one of four recipients, recognised for her interdisciplinary approach to research and her ability to bring together expertise from different fields to develop innovations that benefit patients.
The theme of this year’s honorary doctorates is courage, celebrating individuals who pursue important challenges rather than the easiest path. Professor Maroeska Rovers, honorary supervisor at the University of Twente, praised Professor Stevens’s collaborative approach, stating: “Molly shows how bringing together expertise from different fields can lead to innovations that make a difference for patients.”
Professor Stevens has also been appointed to the Board of Governors at Wellcome. Alongside fellow new Governor Dr Jean-Philippe Vert, she will bring scientific and technological expertise to the Board, which oversees Wellcome’s work and supports its executive team.
Reflecting on her appointment, Professor Stevens said
There are huge opportunities emerging from the way different fields are coming together, and I’m particularly interested in how we can turn that creativity and discovery into things that genuinely improve people’s lives across the world. One of the many things that I find exciting about Wellcome is that it has the scale and independence to take a long view, while staying focused on some of the most important challenges in human health.