Frank Kelly recognised in the 2025 New Year Honours

Professor Frank Kelly, Battcock Chair in Community Health and Policy in Imperial College’s School of Public Health has been awarded a CBE in the New Year Honours list  for services to air pollution research and to human health.

A native of Northern Ireland, where he gained a degree in physiology at Queen’s University Belfast, Frank developed an interest in air pollution in the early 90s, setting up the Environmental Research Group in 1993. Under his directorship, the Group and its 68-strong team, transferred from King’s College to Imperial in 2020.

Professor Kelly has featured in air Quality News on countless occasions, most recently at the launch of a collaboration between Imperial College’s Environmental Research Group (ERG), the College’s Healthcare NHS Trust and Hammersmith & Fulham Council, aimed at improving air quality in the borough.

In 2023, when 36 leading air pollution scientists from across the UK wrote to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak warning him that political dialogue was becoming worryingly close to science denial, Frank’s name was first among the signatories. 

His first appearance hereabouts was  in 2012, when he was referenced as an advisor to the Health Air Campaign.

Of his recognition in the Honours list Professor Kelly said: ‘I feel incredibly privileged to have received this recognition – especially since it acknowledges work that has been, and continues to be so very rewarding. I am immensely thankful to those who have supported and inspired me along the way. This honour is a reflection of collective effort and dedication of many talented and wonderful individuals around the world.’

Main page photo: Justin Thomas