A professor of informatics and security research has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours

Press contact: Emma Griffiths | e.griffiths@shu.ac.uk

Professor Babak Akhgar received the OBE, the second highest order of the British Empire award, in recognition of his services to security research.  

A globally recognised leader in his field, Professor Akhgar’s pioneering research has made a considerable contribution to making the world a safer place through the development of innovative programmes to tackle organised crime, child sexual exploitation and terrorism. 

Professor Akhgar is the director and founder of the Centre of Excellence in Terrorism, Resilience, Intelligence and Organised Crime Research (CENTRIC) at Sheffield Hallam University and has developed the Centre, bringing international renown and global influence. 

Working with colleagues in CENTRIC, Professor Akhgar has brought together researchers, law enforcement agencies, policy makers and the public to bridge the gap between academic research and operational reality. 

His commitment to security and tackling crime and cybercrime has helped CENTRIC forge hugely successful partnerships, including collaborations with Europol which have led to major advances in tackling cybercrime and cryptocurrency criminality and development of world first AI Accountability Framework for law enforcement agencies.  

Speaking of his award, Professor Babak Akhgar, said: “It’s an honour and a privilege to have received such an award. It's also a recognition of the colleagues and people who are working at CENTRIC and Sheffield Hallam University. 

"I am grateful to my fantastic colleagues who have enabled us to get to this point and made CENTRIC one of the most successful centres of excellence in security research in Europe and I'm very proud of that." 

Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield Hallam University, Professor Sir Chris Husbands, said: “This is great news for Babak and I’m delighted for him. His contribution to the safety of the entire nation, to the protection of the vulnerable and to our resilience as a society has been immense.”