Steve Smith MBE

Professor Steve Smith (1999, Physics), Arnell Associate Professor of Greenhouse Gas Removal at the University of Oxford's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, has been appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the King's Birthday Honours for services to climate science.

When Steve studied Physics at Lincoln as an undergraduate, climate change wasn't on the syllabus; not even in the option on atmospheres and oceans. Yet the subject was growing rapidly as a field of scientific research and as a societal dilemma.

After completing a PhD in Atmospheric Physics in 2008 at Imperial College London he joined the new Climate Change Committee as Head of Science. His first job was to help formulate the target of an 80% reduction in UK greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

Steve then co-led the climate science programme within Government at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). By this time, both the global ambition to tackle climate change and the economics of action had moved on. He was thus involved in the analysis and advice to ministers that upgraded the 2050 target to a 100% reduction, or "net zero" emissions.

Steve returned to academia and Oxford in 2020 and is Executive Director of Oxford Net Zero and CO2RE, the UK's national greenhouse gas removal research hub. His research focuses on greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide removal and climate policy. He has also played a leading role in developing widely used resources including the Net Zero Tracker and the State of Carbon Dioxide Removal reports, helping to translate climate science into practical tools for policymakers and organisations.

He said, “I am grateful and surprised to find myself in such distinguished company. While many receive an honour for extraordinary achievements, I feel I have simply been doing my job, and it is a privilege to have such an engaging and fulfilling one. Particular thanks to my brilliant colleagues past and present who have made my work possible.”

Dominic Dodd CBE

Mr Dominic Dodd (1986, PPE) has been appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to the NHS.

After graduating from Lincoln, Dominic began his career in strategy consulting with US firm Marakon Associates, where he became a partner in 1997 and managing partner in 2000, advising chief executives across a range of industries in the UK, Europe, the US and Asia-Pacific. He then became an executive director of The Children's Investment Fund Foundation, one of Europe's largest grant-making charities, dedicated to improving the lives of children living in poverty in the developing world.

He went on to hold several chair roles in the UK healthcare system: from 2010-2021 he was chair of The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust, one of the UK's largest acute trusts; and from 2019-2023 he was chair of The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Trust, which specialises in tertiary neuro-muscular-skeletal services, education and research; and from 2023-2025 he was chair of UCL Partners, Europe’s largest health innovation partnership, in which capacity, he co-chaired the innovation workstream of the UK Government’s 2025 Life Sciences Industrial Strategy.

Dominic is currently working on the adoption of several new health technologies for accurate, low cost, early diagnosis.

Dominic said, “It’s been a privilege over the last 20 years to have worked with so many talented people who have dedicated their working lives to the principle that the best healthcare should be there for all. It has left me confident that today, with so many scientific advances, and with courageous leadership at all levels, that aspiration is now more achievable in practice than it has ever been.”