Region’s great and good given honours by King

PREVIOUSLY unsung heroes from the North East as well as national celebrities are among those recognised in the King’s Birthday Honours.

- SONIA SHARMA

Leading the honours list in the North East are Helen Gordon, chief executive of Newcastle-based Grainger plc, who is made a dame; Chris Mullin, the former Sunderland MP and justice campaigner, who lives in Northumberland’ and Professor Carlos Silvestre Frenk, of Durham University.

Sir Carlos, Ogden professor of fundamental physics in Durham's Department of Physics, is one of the originators of the cold dark matter theory for the formation of structure in the universe.

He said: “As a teenager, I remember being captivated by a night sky alight with stars and I knew then that I wanted to spend my life understanding its origins. To have been able to do that, working alongside some of the world’s most talented scientists, has been the greatest privilege”

Nigel Coates, a Northumbria University academic who founded a pioneering Business Clinic that has connected thousands of students with real-world business challenges was awarded an MBE for services to higher education and to business.