All have been selected for what the university calls their “outstanding contribution to society”.
They will be granted the honorary degree of Doctor of the University honoris causa at the university’s winter graduation ceremony.
Alistair Brownlee
Yorkshireman Alistair Brownlee is a double Olympic triathlon champion, four times world champion and holder of other major sporting achievements.
He is also the founder with his brother Jonathan of 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.
While competing at the highest international level, he studied for and got a sports science and physiology degree and an MSc in finance.
Another Yorkshireman with academic achievements who will be honoured in January is expert beekeeper and head of the university’s beekeeping department programme Dr Ryad Alsous.
A Syrian by birth he rose to be professor of food science at Damascus University before fleeing his native country and coming to the UK in 2013 as a refugee.
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. He 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 which runs foodbanks across the country. She was formerly director of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and research and policy director at Pro Bono Economics charity which highlights disparity between different social and ethnic groups. She is a leading national expert on poverty, inequality and social policy.
Her extensive body of research and policy work has 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.
A composer, producer and touring musician with more than 70 film and TV series to his credit including Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle and natural history series such as the BBC’s Human Planet is the third person to be honoured by the university. Nitin Sawhney has worked with artists including Paul McCartney, Anoushka Shankar, Joss Stone, Jools Holland, Ellie Goulding and has recorded with Pink Floyd. He has more than 20 major national and international awards, including the 2017 Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award. As a solo artist he received a Mercury Prize nomination and a MOBO award for his studio albums.
Nitin has received more than 20 major national and international awards, including the 2017 Ivor Novello Lifetime Achievement Award.
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.
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.
The graduation ceremonies run from January 8 to January 10.
