THE Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have presented the UK’s highest academic honour to Durham University for research that has helped to shape the way babies sleep and how parents care for them at night time.
At the awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace, similar to an investiture, the Royal couple awarded The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education to the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart Corbridge, and Professor Helen Ball, director of the Parent-Infant Sleep Lab.
The Lab’s work with more than 5,000 parents and babies during the last 20 years has increased parents’ understanding of babies’ sleep, how best to care for babies during the night, and how best to keep them safe when asleep.
Professor Ball, of the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, said: “To receive recognition for this work via the Queen’s Anniversary Prize is tremendously rewarding, and we are most grateful to all the organisations and individuals who have shared our work and translated it into policy and practice.”
Five PhD students who have worked on Sleep Lab research projects were also invited to the palace for the ceremony, at which Prince Charles presented a medal to Professor Corbridge before the Duchess presented a scroll, representing the certificate, to Professor Ball.
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