Lucy Prebble
BA English Literature 2002, Hon LittD 2025
Lucy is a Sheffield alumna and one of the UK's most respected and critically acclaimed writers, having won a range of awards for her TV and stage writing. An Executive Producer on the BAFTA, Golden Globe and Emmy award-winning TV drama Succession, her work on the show also saw her receive Writers Guild of America and Producers Guild of America awards.
Lucy made her name as a playwright, first coming to global attention with the hugely successful Enron, and followed up with 2019 hit A Very Expensive Poison, winning her the Critics' Circle Award for Best New Play. She created and wrote TV series Secret Diary of a Call Girl, and won the Royal Television Society Award for Best Writer on I Hate Suzie and I Hate Suzie Too. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she was the recipient of the 2019 Wellcome Screenwriting Fellowship.
Diana Springall
Hon LittD 2025
One of Britain’s best-known textile artists, Diana trained in Fine Art at Goldsmiths. Over the course of a 50-year career, she has been chair of both the Embroiderers’ Guild and the Society of Designer Craftsmen, as well as a panel lecturer at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Diana is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Member of the World Crafts Council, and received the Freedom of the City of London in 2018.
Throughout her distinguished career, she has played a key role in advocating for embroidery as an art form. Her numerous large-scale textile works can be found in many public and private collections, including the seven-panel piece Graduation that has been showcased in the University’s Western Bank Library since 1988.
Susanna Chiu
BA Economics 1982, Hon LittD 2025
Outstanding business leader and widely respected Hong Kong community member, Sheffield alumna Susanna has had a hugely successful career while maintaining a strong connection with and support for her alma mater. She has held several high-profile positions including Chief Operating Officer at DVN Holdings Ltd, Senior Vice-President of Operations at Li & Fung Trading Ltd, and Independent Non-Executive Director for Nanyang Commercial Bank Ltd.
In 2013 Susanna became the first female President of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. She was also awarded a Medal of Honour by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, for her achievements in accountancy and her contribution to the community. In 2017 she was awarded the Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year Award by the Hong Kong Commercial Daily newspaper.
Peter Barber OBE
Architectural Studies 1983, Hon LittD 2025
Alumnus Peter is a world-renowned architect known for his social housing designs, which have won numerous prestigious awards and transformed approaches to affordable housing in the UK. Peter Barber Architects was launched in 1989, winning AIA and RIBA awards for its iconic Donnybrook Urban Quarter project in East London, as well as being shortlisted for the 2006 Stirling Prize for best UK building.
The practice was named UK Housing Architect of the Year in 2007 and 2011, and won the Royal Academy’s Grand Award for Architecture in 2015. Peter received the RIBA Neave Brown award, which recognises the UK's best affordable housing, for the McGrath Road scheme in 2021. The same year, he was appointed OBE for services to architecture, and also elected as a Royal Academician.
Shauna Coxsey
Hon LittD 2025
Sheffield-based Shauna is Britain's most successful ever competitive climber, and the UK's first ever bouldering world champion. She won every British Bouldering Championship she entered, and took home back-to-back golds at the 2016 and 2017 IFSC Climbing World Cups.
Shauna also made history by being the first climber to be selected to represent Great Britain at the Olympics in Tokyo 2020, the debut of climbing at the Games. In 2016 she was appointed MBE for services to climbing, and in 2021 was elected President of the International Federation of Sport Climbing Athletes' Commission, with a mandate to 2025.
Urooj Mumtaz Khan
MMedSci Restorative Dentistry 2012, Hon LittD 2025
Dentistry alumna Urooj is a key figure in the recent history of Pakistani women's cricket, having led the Pakistani 2009 ICC Women's World Cup side to its first ever wins in the tournament. Retiring from international cricket in 2010, she moved to Sheffield to complete an MMedSci in Restorative Dentistry, before returning to Pakistan to launch her successful dental career.
In 2019 Urooj was appointed to the committee of the Pakistan Cricket Board, with dual roles as head of women's cricket and head of the first all-women team selection panel. She is credited with defining a clear vision for the future development of Pakistani women’s cricket. An inspiration to many young girls, she became the first Pakistani woman to commentate on a men's international One Day match in 2020, and recently joined ESPN's commentary team for the ICC Men's One Day World Cup in India.
Dr Wanda Thomas Bernard
PhD Sociological Studies 1996, Hon LittD 2025
The first African Nova Scotian woman appointed to serve in Canada's Senate chamber, Wanda is also a founding member of the Association of Black Social Workers (ABSW), dedicated to supporting and advocating for marginalised communities. She is also the first Black Canadian to have an academic tenure position and become a full professor at Dalhousie University, where her research focuses on anti-oppression and diversity.
In 2005, Wanda was appointed to the Order of Canada for her work addressing racism and diversity in the field of social work, and in 2014, she was awarded the Order of Nova Scotia. She was named to the Senate of Canada by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sit as an independent in 2016, and was the chair of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women at the time of her appointment.
Ian McMillan
Hon LittD 2025
Barnsley-born Ian is a distinguished poet, journalist, playwright, and broadcaster, beloved by millions of listeners to long-running shows like BBC Radio 3's The Verb for his witty asides, warm interviews, and proud Yorkshire accent. Active on the UK live literature scene since the 1970s, he has had multiple volumes of his own poetry published for both adults and children, and has worked tirelessly to promote a wider appreciation of poetry nationwide.
Ian has long been styled as the 'poet in residence' for Barnsley FC, and was the featured castaway on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in 2010, the same year he was appointed poet-in-residence at the English National Opera. In 2017 he wrote the libretto for The Arsonists, the world's first opera written in a South Yorkshire dialect, and has been a regular guest on the Today programme and The Culture Show.
Dr Frances Ryan
Hon LittD 2025
Frances is a British journalist, author, and activist for people with disabilities, named by the Shaw Trust in 2021 as one of the UK's ten most influential disabilities activists. Her writing features prominently in The Guardian newspaper, where she penned the regular column Hardworking Britain, among numerous other credits in national and global media.
Her 2019 book Crippled: Austerity and the Demonisation of Disabled People explored the impacts of the UK austerity programme on disabled people, and inspired the BBC drama Hen Night, which Frances co-created. She was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2019 and Paul Foot Award 2020, and has been called 'a prominent voice for people with disabilities in the media' by Global Citizen. She was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2022.
Scott Beaumont
BA Spanish and Business Studies 1994, Hon LittD 2025
Singapore-based Sheffield alumnus Scott was Google President for Asia-Pacific until 2025, with responsibility for forging cutting-edge AI partnerships with government and major corporations. Prior to that, he held the role of Vice-President at Google Greater China and Korea, where he successfully navigated a difficult era of political and censorial upheaval for the company.
Scott's recent work has included promoting better online safety for 50,000 parents and children, as part of the major Safer Internet Day drive across the region. He joined the Advisory Boards for McLaren Racing and for Asia House in 2021, and ran the 2025 London Marathon for Parkinson's disease research. He supports scholarships in medical research, entrepreneurship and employability at Sheffield.
Gary Dunn
BEng Electronic Engineering (Information & Systems) 1991, Hon DEng 2025
A leading UK figure in the worldwide video game industry, Sheffield alumnus Gary joined Codemasters in 2002, where he was promoted to Development Director after just 9 weeks. He subsequently moved to Sega to establish European studios for the company, subsequently becoming Sega Senior VP for Production across Europe and the US.
Gary joined Sheffield-based Sumo Digital in 2017, where he was promoted to Managing Director, and has helped accelerate the growth of the company from 382 staff in 3 studios to 1,753 staff across 19 studios in the UK, India, EU, and Canada. He led the company to a Children & Young People BAFTA win with the much-loved Sackboy: A Big Adventure game, and in 2022 was shortlisted for the Outstanding Leadership category at the TIGA Games Industry Awards.