Bangor University’s work in public health has been recognised with the presentation of a Queen’s Anniversary Prize medal and certificate at Buckingham Palace.
The Queen’s Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education are part of the UK’s Honours system and are awarded every two years by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister following a rigorous, independent review process managed by The Royal Anniversary Trust, an independent charity.
This is the fifteenth round of the scheme and there were over 100 entries, of which 22 institutions were awarded a Prize.
Bangor University was recognised for its novel system for public health surveillance through the analysis of harmful pathogens in wastewater, deployed nationally during the pandemic and now adapted to measure a wide range of public health indicators.
Receiving the Honour, Professor Davey Jones said, “Faced with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew from previous research that there was a possibility we could harness the power of wastewater to track the spread of the virus, and we were able to do just that. This shed light on the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2, but also the transformative potential of wastewater-based epidemiology in safeguarding public health.”
Since then, and on behalf of Welsh Government, the Food Standards Agency and European Union, the technology has been expanded to monitor a wide range of public health indicators including enterovirus, norovirus, influenza, RSV, polio and antimicrobial resistant organisms. This is now being built into a real-time alerting system for healthcare facilities and public health agencies. The technology is also being used to predict the potential for individuals to become infected from coming into contact with sewage contaminated water (e.g. open water swimming), helping to sever the disease reinfection cycle.
Professor Jones added, “It’s a great honour to receive this Award, and I’d like to thank all my colleagues who have given their time and energy to make this research possible. By working with industry, other academic institutions and governments locally, nationally and internationally, we will continue to undertake responsible research for the public good.”
In a letter to Queen’s Anniversary Prize winners UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said,
“I want to say a huge congratulations to the winners of the 2022-2024 Queen’s University Prizes for Higher and Further Education. I know this year’s honours will be particularly special as we remember the late Queen Elizabeth II and her long-standing support for these awards, and the tremendous good that education can bring.
“I am immensely proud of Britain’s higher and further education sector. In the UK, we have some of the best universities anywhere in the world. We have first rate further education colleges. And we are home to some amazing innovations, incredible inventions and ground-breaking research.”
