THE University of Bradford has revealed who will be receiving honorary degrees at this year’s graduation ceremonies.

The seven national and international figures will be presented with their degrees at ceremonies taking place this week at the university’s Great Hall.

Professor Alok Dhawan, Sir David Behan, Professor Jacqui Taylor, Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Paul Jagger MBE, Sapheih Ashtiany, and Professor the Baroness Haleh Afshar will be handed their degrees by Chancellor Kate Swann and Vice-Chancellor Professor Brian Cantor.

Professor Dhawan is the director of the CSIR-Indian Institute of Toxicology Research in Lucknow, India.

He started the area of nanomaterial toxicology in India, and has published a guide on the safe use of nanomaterials. He work has won him international accolades and has been elected to several national academies of science globally.

University alumnus Sir David Behan is the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission, and was awarded his knighthood for services to health and car in the 2017 New Year’s Honours list.

He has previously worked as the director general of social care, local government and care partnerships at the Department of Health, the presidents of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, and was the first chief inspector of the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

Web scientist, entrepreneur and Government advisor Professor Jacqui Taylor co-founded FlyingBinary, one of the original 250 Tech City companies, and is also a high profile mentor at Tech City, the world’s best digital hub. She is recognised as one of the UK’s top 100 most powerful entrepreneurs.

Dame Pamela Shaw is Professor of Neurology and Vice-President and Pro-Vice Chancellor for the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health at the University of Sheffield, and founding director of the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience, one of the world leading centres for motor neurone disease research.

She has taken part in more than 15 MND clinical trials, and has worked as UK chief investigator and sat on steering committees, including in several academic led studies.

She is also an active member of the European Network for the Cure of ALS.

Former Pro Chancellor of the University of Bradford, Paul Jagger, is also a former TUC regional secretary, and former board member of Yorkshire Forward.

With 40 years of experience in regional and local work through formal and informal institutions, he is a key economic, skills, and social policy figure in Yorkshire.

He was regional secretary of the TUC from 1987 to 2006, during which time it became the first trade union structure in England and Wales to receive funding for the development of workplace training through the trade union network.

Iran-born and British-educated Sapheih Ashtiany is a lawyer and expert in equality and employment law.

Her first job was with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants in London working mostly with Commonwealth immigrants facing new restrictions.

She then successfully applied for a new role established by the UN High Commission for Refugees’ Office at the UK Immigrants’ Advisory Service as the first dedicated advice and advocacy service for refugees in the UK.

She has since founded Ashtiany Associates, which specialises in equality law, and works mainly with charitable bodies, and is also a trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.

Baroness Haleh Afshar is emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of York and Honorary President of the Muslim Women’s Network UK.

She has served as a crossbench peer in the House of Lords for the last ten years.

Born and raised in Iran, she was awarded an OBE in 2005 for servies to equal opportunities, and was made a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2009, and has served on many Government bodies, commissions and advisory groups, as well as serving as a patron for many charities and groups, including the Yorkshire Kidney Research Fund and Women and Children First.

The honorary graduates will receive their awards at ceremonies from July 18, to July 20.