Professor Andrew Curran CBE
PROFESSOR CHRIS BUSSELL: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Lord Lieutenant, The Deputy Mayor of High Peak, Honoured guests, Graduands of 2024, and all our guests here today, it gives me great pleasure to be presenting Professor Andrew Curran CBE for the award of Honorary Doctor of the University.
Andrew is Director of Science and Chief Scientific Adviser to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The HSE is Britain's national regulator for workplace health and safety, and has helped to make Britain one of the safest places to work in the world. Andrew is based at the HSE's Science and Research Centre, just here in Buxton, along the way at Harper Hill.
Andrew grew up in Rotherham. He studied Microbiology at the University of Birmingham, followed by his PhD at the University of Nottingham. Andrew joined the HSE in 1991, and took up his post as Chief Scientific Adviser and Director of Research in March 2015.
During his 33 year career with the HSE, Andrew has been a bench scientist, has led numerous teams, and has had a significant publication record in the field of occupational health and safety.
He is responsible for ensuring that the HSE has access to the evidence it needs to underpin policy and regulatory decisions in making the world a safer place. This involves overseeing the HSE's wide ranging scope of research into protecting people's health and safety at work. This can vary from examining occupational diseases to testing hydrogen explosions. It also ranges from researching exposure to harmful substances, and also understanding the transmission of the Covid virus.
During the pandemic, Andrew was an active participant in the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, the SAGE Group. He led the PROTECT National Core Study, the largest study in the world to better understand the transmission of Covid 19, all of which supported the UK's response to the pandemic.
As well as being part of the Government's Scientific Advisory Board and the network that encompasses, Andrew also sits on the Government's Science and Engineering Professions Board, where he is Deputy Head of the Profession under Dame Angela Maclean, who is the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser.
Andrew is a fellow of the Royal Society of Biology, and the Chartered Management Institute, and an Honorary Fellow of the UK Faculty of Occupational Medicine. He is an Honorary Professor at the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester, where he co-directs the Centre for Workplace Health and the Thomas Ashton Institute for Risk and Regulatory Research, respectively.
Last year (2023), Andrew was recognised in the King's New Year Honours list with a CBE for his significant contribution to public service. We are very fortunate to have Andrew operating within our region, leading such significant research with national and international impact. This makes all our lives safer and the workplace better to be in.
Andrew is celebrating here today with his parents, Tony and Pauline, and his son Matthew.
Chancellor, in recognition of his outstanding achievement in scientific research and his significant contribution to public service, we are delighted to award Professor Andrew Curran CBE, the honorary degree of Doctor of the University.
PROFESSOR ANDREW CURRAN CBE: Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Lord Lieutenant, Deputy Mayor of High Peak, Honoured guests, Graduands and now some graduates of 2024. And all our guests here today.
First of all, thank you for inviting me to such a fantastic ceremony. I've never been in such a joyous honorary degree ceremony or indeed degree ceremony generally. So thank you very much. It's really inspiring.
Thank you also for that very generous citation and for the award of Honorary Doctor of the University. It's my privilege to accept it.
I've been extremely fortunate in my career, with the support that I've received, from my parents, my children, my fantastic colleagues, all of whom have enabled me to do one of the best science jobs in the world. Every day I can go to work and I can blow things up. I can set fire to things, and I can crash things together, all in the name of health and safety.
In receiving this award, I also get the opportunity to say a few words to you as new graduates as you move into the next phase of your lives. It's not really for me to tell you how to move forward, but what I will say is that you've got a huge adventure in front of you, and your degree will have equipped you with a powerful tool box containing all of the knowledge and the skills that you need to be what I would call respectfully curious.
Question, challenge, don't accept everything at face value. That's the way that you'll change the world for the better, and make a positive difference in addressing the big challenges that we all face in the future.
Now, in setting you that challenge, I don't know how many of you have noticed the words that span this magnificent building, written just below the dome here. And my challenge to you all is to think about what they say and what they mean, and what they can teach us about some of the risks that we need to consider when we're moving forward as a society.
To give you a clue, it's the 'cotton' word that's probably most important. And of course, Manchester, just down the road, was built on the back of the cotton industry, but this building had to be converted to take those individuals who had sadly been made very ill because they were working in the cotton mills.
So, whilst we can be innovative in the work that we do, we need to think about how to make sure those people are healthy and safe and can go home to their families every day. And it's only by being respectfully curious that we worked out how to do that.
So, I would urge you all to have a think, maintain your toolbox, and be respectfully curious in everything that you do.
Thank you very much indeed.
Professor Andrew Curran's commendation video
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