Professor Anthony Cheetham was awarded a prestigious Honorary Doctorate on Tuesday 14 July from WMG for his outstanding contribution to materials science.

Professor Cheetham is one of the world’s outstanding materials scientists and his sustained research output includes 600 journal publications achieving 30,000 citations. His exceptional academic creativity has led to ground-breaking innovations in materials chemistry that have formed the basis of global research efforts. He has combined this with a passionate commitment to science that culminated with his appointment as Treasurer and Vice President of The Royal Society, a fellowship of the world's most eminent scientists.

Lord Bhattacharyya, Chairman and founder of WMG said: “Professor Cheetham’s commitment to research and academia has ensured there has been a strong scientific voice, both in the UK and overseas, in the materials field. I was delighted to be able to present him with this Honorary Doctorate.”

He obtained his D.Phil. at Oxford in 1971 and did post-doctoral work in the Materials Physics Division at Harwell. He joined the chemistry faculty at Oxford in 1974, and then moved to the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1991 to become Professor in the Materials Department. In 1992 he took up the Directorship of the new Materials Research Laboratory, which he led for 12 years. He became the Director of the newly created International Centre for Materials Research at UCSB (University of California, Santa Barbara) in 2004, and then moved to Cambridge in 2007 to become the Goldsmiths’ Professor of Materials Science.

He has been instrumental in building scientific capacity in the developing world, recognised through Fellowship of the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World, and central to developing research excellence in India, visiting over 50 times, including winter schools for young scientists. He is Science Advisor to Sheikh Saud, Ruler of Ras al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, creating the Ras al Khaimah Centre for Advanced Materials and Sheikh Saqr Laboratory in Bangalore.

In 2014, he co-chaired with Professor C N R Rao FRS in Bangalore the first Commonwealth Science Conference in almost 50 years. The ground-breaking conference was opened by the President of India and with a message from the Queen. It celebrated excellence in Commonwealth science with a focus on less developed countries, leading to initiatives to encourage young scientists.