Apple's Ive knighted alongside graphene pioneers

Apple designer Jonathan Ive has been made a knight commander of the Order of the British Empire, the honours list published on New Year's Eve revealed.

Ive, from Essex, has headed up Apple's industrial design efforts since 1997. Influenced by design icons such as Braun's Dieter Rams, Ive's minimalistic styling has been a major factor in the success of the iMac, MacBook, iPod, iPhone and iPad lines.

University of Manchester physics professors Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were also made knights bachelor for their services to science. The two have already won the Nobel Prize for their pioneering work in the field of graphene research.

Graphene, an atom-thick carbon lattice, is a substance with huge potential for post-silicon electronics. In 2004, Gein and Novoselov became the first to isolate a graphene layer from graphite, more-or-less using sticky tape.

Government technology advisor and University of Surrey vice-chancellor Christopher Snowden was also made a knight bachelor for services to engineering and higher education. Snowden is a veteran of the UK's microwave engineering and photonics fields.

CBEs also went to artificial intelligence veteran Alan Bundy, computer scientist Ursula Martin and Oxford Instruments chief David Flint.