Chris Whitty receives knighthood in New Year's Honours

Experts leading the UK’s effort against the coronavirus pandemic dominate the New Year honours list.

Whitty is England's chief medical officer and the UK department of health's top scientific adviser. As the government's chief medical adviser, he gives expert advice to ministers, his calm and measured manner giving reassurance to the public. During the coronavirus outbreak, BBC health editor Hugh Pym has called him "the official who will probably have the greatest impact on our everyday lives of any individual policymaker in modern times".

Whitty is one of the foremost UK experts in infectious diseases. In 2014 he played a leading role advising on the UK response to the Ebola epidemic as chief scientific adviser to the Department for International Development. 

At Oxford University, Whitty read for a DPhil in Clinical Medicine (1988) and was Wolfson's Chair of General Meeting, 1990-91.