Prince Daniel was awarded an honorary doctorate last week through the Karolinska Institutet, receiving his award for his commitment to public health and children’s exercise and sports.
At a graduation ceremony at Stockholm City Hall, Prince Daniel was awarded his honorary doctorate alongside Professor Shinhiro Takeda and Soumya Swaminathan, the Scientific Director of the World Health Organization. Crown Princess Victoria was on hand to celebrate her husband’s achievement.
In a speech, Prince Daniel said: “Being appointed honorary doctor at the renowned Karolinska Institutet is a great honour. But above all, I see it as a recognition of all the people who are seldom recognised but who devote their time and energy to helping children and young people establish healthy habits early in life.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot even begin to imagine how many lives will have been saved by Doctor Swaminathan’s work to bring covid vaccine to low and middle-income countries.
“Or, by Professor Takeda’s efforts in developing and implementing ECMO therapy.
“And I am convinced that if we can give every child a fair chance to live a healthy life, regardless of social or economic background if we can prevent lifestyle-related disease, even more lives can and will be saved.
“This is something we have to do – and we have to do it using evidence-based methods. In this effort, the research conducted here at Karolinska Institutet plays a crucial role.
“I would like to give my sincere thanks to the students, the researchers, the staff and the management of Karolinska Institutet.
“And, as a spoke person for us, this year’s honorary doctors, it is my privilege to propose a toast: to science, to knowledge and to the medical university Karolinska Institutet.”
Prince Daniel also used his speech to explain why he is focused on children’s exercise and health, relating a story of two babies, Sophie and David, who have different advantages early in life that will inform their health later on—one will die at the age of 90 due to all of the significant advantages she had at birth; the other will die at the age of 74 following lifelong health complications because he did not have the same start.
Prince Daniel said: “Six years is the difference in life expectancy between the highly educated and the less educated in Sweden today. Depending on where you grow up, the differences are even greater – like for Sophie and David.
“Six years is more than 2000 days. And I find it unacceptable that some lives should hold so many fewer days than others.
“This is the reason I chose to engage with children’s and young people’s health.
“And this is also why I am standing here now.”
The Karolinska Institutet routinely awards honorary doctorates to those who make significant public contributions to the field of science or to those who have not received formal doctorates but have used research and development to further themselves and their careers.
