Queen Mary Emeritus Professor receives CBE in King’s birthday honours

Emeritus Professor Tilli Tansey was awarded the CBE

Tilli Tansey, Emeritus Professor of Medical History and Pharmacology in the William Harvey Research Institute at Queen Mary University of London, has been made a CBE as part of the King’s birthday honours. 

The honour, for services to the understanding and promotion of medical history and science, recognises Professor Tansey’s outstanding achievements. She was previously awarded an OBE in 2014 for her services to research in the medical sciences and to the public understanding of science. 

Professor Tansey started out as a neuroscientist at the University of Sheffield, studying the brain of an octopus for her PhD. She went on to work at the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh and the Multiple Sclerosis Society at St Thomas’s Hospital in London. In 1990 she moved into medical history, completing her second PhD on the career of Sir Henry Dale, FRS (1875-1968). She was later awarded a DSc (2011) and Honorary MD (2016) from the University of Sheffield. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2007. 

She joined the School of History at Queen Mary in 2010, where, funded by the Wellcome Trust, she served for seven years as Professor of the History of Modern Medical Sciences before becoming an Emeritus Professor of Medical History and Pharmacology at the William Harvey Research Institute.  

Professor Tansey’s focus is on the history of modern and contemporary medical sciences. One of her major accomplishments has been the development of the Witness Seminar series, which has successfully brought together medical experts in group discussions analyse and put on record aspects of modern biomedicine. This technique has captured essential source material in more than forty wide-ranging areas of biomedical research and is now mirrored around the world. Throughout, she has listened for the ‘other voices’ of medicine, most especially those of laboratory technicians. All the material generated from her research is freely available online. Without her unique methods a wealth of historical material would be lost. 

On hearing she had been awarded the CBE, Professor Tansey said: “I'm delighted to receive this honour for my work on the history of modern biomedicine, which was funded by the Wellcome Trust. I have been assisted for many years by dedicated research teams who have all contributed to the work that has been honoured by this award.”