Congratulations to Katie Perry, our Chief Executive, who has been named as one of this year’s University of Surrey Alumni Award winners.

Katie graduated from the University of Surrey in 1990 with a BSc in Physics and then went on to do a PhD. It was during her time studying in the Physics department at Surrey that Katie first met Professor Daphne Jackson, the UK’s first female physics professor. Professor Jackson, OBE, inspired Katie with her commitment to nurturing talent in science and engineering, and particularly to supporting individuals who have taken a break from research and now wish to return.

Katie became Chief Executive of the Daphne Jackson Trust in 2011. The Trust, set up following Professor Jackson’s death, works in partnership with universities and sponsoring organisations to provide flexible fellowships to individuals wishing to return to research following a career break taken for family, caring or health reasons. Since becoming Chief Executive Katie has made far reaching changes to the Trust’s governance, and introduced the sponsored fellowship programme. The Trust now awards 25 new Fellowships each year.

An interview with Katie will be published on the University of Surrey Alumni website in due course.

This year awards were made in four categories: enterprise, arts, industry and humanitarian/charities and an overall winner was then chosen. This year the overall winner was Chris Benstead, who graduated from Music and Sound Recording in 2004 and won the arts category. Chris has been chosen as the winner for his phenomenal achievements in the last 12 months which included winning an Oscar and BAFTA for his music production on the Hollywood film Gravity.

Details of all the winners can be found here.