Principal awarded OBE in New Year Honours

Posted 1 January 2009

Harper Adams University College Principal Professor Wynne Jones has been awarded an OBE in the 2009 New Year Honours.

Prof Jones, who has been at the college for 21 years and has held the role of principal and chief executive since 1996, receives the honour “for services to local and national agricultural higher education”.

He said: “I'm proud to have received this honour, but while it is a personal recognition, I'd like to think that it reflects the success of the college as a whole, recognising the hard work of everyone here at Harper Adams over the past decade.

"The recognition for Higher Education as a whole is most welcome, as the sector works extremely hard to deliver high quality learning, research, and knowledge transfer to the wider common good.”

Prof Jones attended the University College of North Wales, Bangor where he graduated in Agriculture in 1970. Following a short period working for the Animal Breeding Research Organisation, he joined Reading University as a Research Assistant whilst also undertaking research for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy which was awarded in 1976.

Until 1988 he was Head of Animal Production at the Welsh Agricultural College (now part of the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences) at Aberystwyth
In 1988 he was appointed Vice Principal and Director of Research at Harper Adams Agricultural (now University) College and was appointed Principal in 1996.

He was:
Awarded a Nuffield Farming Scholarship in 1983
Awarded a Temperton Fellowship for Poultry Research in 1997
Appointed Fellow of the Royal Agricultural Societies in 1993
Appointed Fellow of the Institution of Agricultural Engineers in 2002
Conferred with an Honorary DSc from Canfield University in 2006

And has been recognised by:
The Royal Agricultural Society of England with the National Agricultural Award for outstanding services to the agricultural industry in 2005
The Farmers Club for an outstanding contribution to British agriculture in 2007