The Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry was officially opened at Queen's University in Belfast last night.
Heaney graduated from Queen's in 1961 and lectured in the School of English from 1966 to 1972.
He won the Whitbread Award three times and in 1996 was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
The £3 million literary centre, funded by the university's Campaign for Queen's, will be an international base for high-quality research and creative writing.
At the opening ceremony, Queen's vice-chancellor Professor Sir George Bain said: "The Times Literary Supplement has said that poetry is now the activity for which the university is best known throughout the English-speaking world."
"This accolade owes much not only to Seamus' reputation but also to his work in fostering the dynamic literary activity that is characteristic of the university.''
Heaney said that he was honoured by the fact that the university wanted to put his name on the centre.
He said: "The establishment of the centre is a recognition of the epoch-making achievements of the poets, critics and teachers associated with Queen's for the past half-century."
"It represents a bold commitment, an act of faith in the imaginative and intellectual work that has brought repute and respect to the university, and is a proper extension of that work."
Queen's has fostered several distinguished poets, including Paul Muldoon, winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, Medbh McGuckian, and Frank Ormsby.
The first director of the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry will be award-winning poet and Queen's graduate Ciaran Carson.
