A leading diabetes specialist has been awarded a knighthood in the 2012 New Year Honours.
Professor Stephen Bloom, from the Department of Medicine at Imperial College London, was knighted for services to medical science.
Sir Keith O'Nions, Rector of Imperial College London, said: "Steve, as a clinical academic, has pioneered new approaches to tackling obesity and diabetes – one of the major societal challenges of the day.”
Professor Bloom is the Head of Division for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism and Chair of the Section of Investigative Medicine at the College. He is also Lead Clinician for Clinical Chemistry at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. In 1974, he joined the Royal Postgraduate Medical School at Hammersmith Hospital, which became part of the Imperial College School of Medicine in 1997.
"I found out two months ago,” said Professor Bloom. “My reaction was total astonishment plus disbelief."
He added: "The honour is a testament to the efforts of a great many colleagues with whom I have worked over the years."
Professor Bloom is currently leading a research group investigating how the brain and hormones produced in the gut regulate appetite.
In his research work Professor Bloom has covered five related categories: endocrinology clinical research, physiology and pathology of gut hormones, control of insulin release and insulin resistance, role of neuropeptides in organ control and the role of neuropeptides in CNS regulation of appetite and related hypothalamic functions.
Professor Bloom has been a member of the Main Scientific Board for AstraZeneca and advisory boards for Upjohn and Novartis. He has published more than 1,000 papers (excluding review articles) in journals including Nature, J Biol Chem, PNAS, JCI and NEJM.