Professor Rosemary Horne awarded Massey University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award

Mr Michael Ahie (Chancellor),
Professor Rosemary Horne & Professor
Jan Thomas (Vice-Chancellor)

Senior Principal Research Fellow Professor Rosemary Horne, from the Department of Paediatrics and The Ritchie Centre, has been awarded the 2019 Massey University Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award.


The Distinguished Alumni Awards honour alumni who have made outstanding contributions to Massey University, their professions, their communities or the nation.

Professor Horne commenced her studies at New Zealand's Massey University in the early 1970s, completing a Bachelor of Science majoring in zoology and physiology, and Master of Science majoring in zoology. In the late 1970s, Professor Horne moved to Australia where she began to forge her career, and in 1989 completed her PhD at Monash University researching sleep and arousal responses in lambs. This lay the foundations for her to return to Monash in 1995 to work on a research project looking at the effects of sleeping position on arousal in babies.

Since that time, Professor Horne's research has focused on sleep in infants and children, and her current research projects investigate mechanisms involved in Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy (SUDI), the development of cardio-respiratory control in preterm infants, and the effects of sleep disordered breathing on daytime performance and the cardiovascular system in children.

Professor Horne's work has contributed to a greater understanding what underpins the risk factors for SUDI, with the clinical impact resulting in changes to treatment approaches for sleep-disordered breathing in children, as well as education on reducing the risk of SUDI.

“I am extremely proud and humbled to receive this award from the university I attended in New Zealand,” Professor Horne said.

Congratulations, Rosemary on this wonderful achievement.