Dr Geoffrey Dean, former director of the Medico-Social Research Board in the Republic, has been awarded a CBE in the British New Year's honours list for services to medicine.
He was among a number of people with Irish connections honoured including Ms Christina Mary Noble, Mr Ian White and Mr David Palmer.
Dublin-born Ms Noble received an OBE for her service to children in Vietnam, where she set up a centre for street children in 1996.
Also honoured with an MBE award was Mr Ian White, chief executive of the Glencree Centre for Reconciliation in Co Wicklow. Mr Palmer, a retired businessman and former Independent News and Media director, received a CBE for his services to newspaper publishing and British business interests in Ireland.
Dr Deane, who was born in Wales and is a medical graduate of Liverpool University, was appointed as inaugural director of the Medico-Social Research Board - a forerunner of the Health Research Board - in 1968 by the then Minister of Health, Mr Erskine Childers. During his 18 year tenure he laid the foundation for modern medical social research here.
The MSRB was developed with the express purpose of analysing medical and social problems in the State. One of its initiatives was to set up a hospital in-patient inquiry scheme in the Republic, which, for the first time, brought together information on diagnosis, treatment and length of stay which could be linked with a patient's age, sex and place of residence.
Dr Dean qualified in 1942; he then received his call-up papers to join the Royal Air Force as a medical officer. After two years' service in Bomber Command, he emigrated to South Africa where he established a practice as a consultant neurologist. During the apartheid years he was one of the few doctors to openly criticise the South African government for maltreatment of prisoners.
Renowned for his skills as a clinical epidemiologist - the medical discipline which deals with the causation of disease - Dr Dean is especially noted for his research into lung cancer (with Sir Richard Doll), porphyria ( a blood disease), multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease. He has extensively researched the possible relationship between Down's syndrome and the BNFL plant at Sellafield.