Honorary awards 2022

Diane Yeo has been recognised for her service in civil society, charities and higher education, and for her contribution to embedding professional frameworks and high standards of governance in the field of fundraising.

Diane Yeo is the co-founder of the Institute of Fundraising and the first female Charity Commissioner. Diane co-founded the Institute of Fundraising in 1983 and was its Chief Executive for five years. Her work laid the foundations for delivering certified training and education, giving charity fundraisers a code of professional conduct and contributing to The Charities Act 1992 fundraising controls. Diane was appointed Honorary Life Fellow in 1989 and the Institute was awarded a Royal Charter in 2020.

In 1989, Diane became the first female Charity Commissioner since the Commission’s establishment in 1853 – providing fundraising insight and expertise at a critical point in the profession’s development. Diane was appointed Chief Executive of the Malcolm Sargent Cancer Fund, where she transformed the small organisation into a leading UK cancer charity. In 2001, Diane became Chair of ArtsEd, and in 2014 became Founder Chair of the Trustees of ‘Encouragement Through Arts and Talking’, a local charity providing crucial support to lonely, isolated people in London, giving them access to practical arts activity.

Diane has also served on the University of Westminster’s Court of Governors and is a member of the Regent Street Cinema Advisory Board where she led the renovation of the historic cinema.

Professor Sophie Scott is the Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and the Head of the Speech Communications Group a University College, London. She studied Life Sciences at the University of Westminster, then Polytechnic of Central London. Sophie completed her PhD in Cognitive Science at UCL before working for the Medical Research Council in Cambridge and taking a series of Wellcome Trust fellowships. In 2019 she became Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience.

In recognition of her outstanding contribution to Psychology, Professor Sophie Scott was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2016, and she was appointed CBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours list in 2020 for services to neuroscience.

Sophie also works as a stand-up comedian. She has performed at the Hammersmith Apollo and appeared on a variety of TV and radio shows including Radio 4’s The Infinite Monkey Cage and BBC TV’s Horizon.  In 2015 she gave a TED talk entitled Why We Laugh, and in 2017 she presented the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC 4.  In 2020, she was presented with the Michael Faraday Prize and Lecture by the Royal Society for her work in engaging the public with neuroscience.