Professor Dario Alessi awarded OBE in King’s Birthday Honours

Professor Alessi has been honoured for services to biomedical research and translation.

Professor Alessi was born in Strasbourg in 1967. He earned his Bachelor’s and PhD degrees from the University of Birmingham and carried out postdoctoral work at the MRC-PPU at Dundee. He has been a group leader in the MRC-PPU since 1997 and was appointed its director in 2012.

He was elected as a member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) in 2005 and as Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2002), the Royal Society (2008) and of the Academy of Medical Sciences (2012). Throughout his career, he has been honoured with awards, including the EMBO Gold Medal (2005) and the Francis Crick Prize of the Royal Society (2006).

In March this year he was named as the winner of the prestigious Jeantet-Collen Prize for Translational Medicine.

On being awarded an OBE, he said, "I am happy to receive this award and grateful for the amazing research and dedication of my research team as well as the long-term support I have received from the University of Dundee, Medical Research Council and Michael J Fox Foundation."

The King’s Birthday Honours list also included alumnus and honorary graduate Dr Niall Elliott, Head of Sports Medicine at Sports Scotland and Chief Medical Officer for the British Olympic Association, who was awarded an OBE for services to sports and exercise medicine.