The first stop for the Royal couple was the Egypt Centre, where the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Richard B Davies, will officially welcomed them to the Singleton campus.

The Prince and the Duchess then moved on to the University’s new Institute of Environmental Sustainability, for a showcase of the latest world-class, cutting-edge environmental research at Swansea.

The Egypt Centre’s Curator, Carolyn Graves-Brown, guided the Royal couple on a tour of the University’s museum of Egyptian antiquities, which has two component parts - the House of Life and the House of Death.

They met children from Gors Community School in the Townhill area of the city, who were taking part in a Young Egyptologist workshop.  The workshops form part of the Centre’s innovative learning project for youngsters, aged seven to 11, from schools in the city’s Communities First areas.

The Young Egyptologist project unravels the secrets of ancient Egypt through out-of-school-hours activities, including a Saturday club where the children have the opportunity to handle ancient Egyptian objects, dress up like ancient Egyptians to learn about the clothing they wore, and attend a 'scribe school' where they learn to write their names in hieroglyphs.

The Centre also operates a highly innovative child volunteer project for nine to 16-year-olds.  The young volunteers work in the museum on Saturdays and school holidays, giving guided tours and helping visitors with the hands-on activities.

The University's new Institute of Environmental Sustainability (IES) is one of two inter- and multi-disciplinary research institutes, based within the School of the Environment and Society.

The IES brings together a diverse team of scientists of international standing, including biologists, geographers and development studies specialists, working across a broad range of environmental research issues.

A major focus of activity within the IES is understanding the causes and consequences of climate change, locally, regionally and globally.

Guided by the Head of the School, Professor Mike Barnsley, the Prince and the Duchess met research staff and students during a showcase of six of the Institute's latest research projects.

They learned how Swansea scientists have constructed a 'flight recorder' to track endangered animals, which was demonstrated by Professor Rory Wilson, who attached the minute device to the collar of his pet dog Moon, a Border Collie.

There was a demonstration of the monitoring of leatherback sea turtles in UK and Irish waters using the latest satellite tracking technology, and a demonstration of research into sensory systems, which monitor how mussels react to their environment.

The Royal couple also discovered the latest developments in climate change research at Swansea, including work into tree-ring samples from Europe and the USA, which show how the effects of climate change can be monitored in very fine detail over the last 1,000 years.  This work is helping to establish the contribution of humans to recent global warming.

There was a demonstration of global image data sets recorded by Earth-orbiting satellites, which show anomalies on the land surface and in the oceans in response to variations in climate.

The final demonstration comprised field equipment used to measure properties of the Antarctic ice sheet and computer-based displays of recent changes to the Greenland ice-sheet.  This demonstration focused, in particular, on its 'surging' glaciers, which speed up and slow down in response to climatic effects, varying the delivery of freshwater into the world's oceans.

Before departing, the Prince unveiled a plaque, to commemorate Their Royal Highnesses' visit to the new Institute of Environmental Sustainability.

Professor Richard B Davies, Vice-Chancellor of Swansea University, said: "We were pleased to show the Prince and the Duchess some of the exciting things happening at Swansea University and how we are working on both a global and local scale, in ways which benefit people in our own locality and throughout the world."

The Egypt Centre
www.swansea.ac.uk/egypt/
 
Institute of Environmental Sustainability
www.swansea.ac.uk/research/centresandinstitutes/InstituteofEnvironmentalSustainability/
 
The Prince of Wales official website
www.princeofwales.gov.uk/