Tuesday 22 April 2014

National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) Research Fellow Dr Dominic Rhodes collected his MBE at a ceremony held in Buckingham Palace last Friday (March 21st). The award makes Dominic a Member of the Order of the British Empire and is in recognition of his services to science.

Dominic has worked in the nuclear sector for almost 20 years. In his current role as a Research Fellow with NNL in the field of powders and slurries, he has led many projects for NNL customers, in particular at Sellafield, where he has done work related to virtually every major plant on the site. As well as research to solve operational problems, Dominic is passionate about innovation and has helped to bring forward many innovative technology concepts to address challenges across the nuclear sector.

Dominic is also NNL’s Corporate Social Responsibility Manager and plays a very prominent, hands-on role in leading outreach activities for the company, working with schools and other bodies in West Cumbria and throughout the UK. He has led NNL’s work with The Smallpeice Trust, running a series of residential courses to help inspire young people in science and technology subjects. A number of the young people who have been inspired by Dominic’s involvement through his outreach work now work alongside him as colleagues.

Dominic said:

“I’ve had a couple of months to get used to the idea of my MBE but the ceremony at Buckingham Palace reinforced the initial surprise and honour I felt when I found out the news. I remain grateful and fortunate that my career has allowed me to combine my desire to be a practising scientist and my passion to help inspire a new generation of scientists and technologists. Both aspects of my work require a major team effort to be successful and I’ve always been lucky to work with some fabulous colleagues who combine great knowledge and tremendous enthusiasm.”

NNL Managing Director Paul Howarth noted when the award was announced in January that:

“Dominic’s award is great news and very well-deserved. He devotes a huge amount of his personal time to promoting science, technology, engineering and maths to young people and I hear a lot of really positive feedback about the impact he has on those individuals. He has boundless enthusiasm in addition to his specialist technical expertise and he is an inspiration to colleagues in NNL as well as those people he deals with outside the company.”