deLIGHTed Talks: Good Light – Good Life in Wintertime, November 3, 2021 — LED professional

SPEAKER

Prof. Till Roenneberg

Education
1973-1979 Physics Medicine and Biology (LMU Munich), graduation (Diploma) in zoology, genetics and biochemistry; 1980 Neuroscience of colour vision, University College, London; 1983 Graduation (Dr.rer.nat); 1993 Habilitation (Dr. med. habil.).

Scientific Positions
1979-1982 Research assistant, Medical Faculty LMU Munich; 1982-1985 Post-Doctoral period with Prof. J. Aschoff; 1983-1985 Lecturer, Medical FacultyLMU Munich; 1985-1988 Postdoc (J.W. Hastings), Tutor, Teaching Fellow and Research Associate, Harvard; 1988-1993 Assistant Professor, Medical Faculty LMU Munich; 1989-1995 Visiting Scholar, Harvard; 1993-2001 Associate Professor, Medical Faculty LMU Munich; 1996-2002 Coordinator DFG-Center (Schwerpunkt); 2001 full Professor, Medical Faculty, LMU Munich; 2001 Head of the Munich Centre for Chronobiology; 2002-2005 Director of the clinical education “Nervous system and Behaviour”, Medical Faculty, LMU Munich; 2005-2007 Chair Gordon Conference for Chronobiology; 2005-2009 Chair of the research network “ClockWORK” (Daimler-Benz-Foundation); 2005-2011 Chair of the EU 6th Framework Programme (“EUCLOCK”); 2008-2012 Department Chair (Institute for Medical Psychology, IMP, Medical Faculty, LMU Munich); 2011- President of the World Federation of Chronobiological Societies; 2012-2015 President of the European Biological Rhythms Society; 2012-2019 Department Vice-Chair (IMP); 2012; Visiting Professor Universidade Federal Rio Grande del Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil; 2016-2019 Visiting Professor University of the Philippines, Manila, Philippines; 2018 Visiting Professor University of Padua, Italy; 2020 Visiting Professor Northwestern University, Chicago; 2020-Senior Research Associate Institute and Polyclinic for Occupational-, Social- and Environmental Medicine, LMU Munich; 2021- Visiting Professor Oxford University.

Publications
More than 200 scientific publications and two books; Impact Factor: >1,000; >20,000 citations; H- index: 66; > 400 invited talks.

Awards and Prizes
1987 Harvard-Hoops Prize for “Excellence in Teaching”; 1993 Honma Prize of the University of Sapporo for “Outstanding contributions to the field of chronobiology”; 1998 “Aschoff’s Ruler” – Research Prize; 2004 Die “Rose des Kurt-Huber-Gymnasiums”; 2004 Silver Medal of the University of Munich for outstanding achievements in teaching; 2011 Professional Lighting Design Recognition Award for Research and Education; 2013 Science Book award of the British Medical Association Board for the Public Understanding of Science; 2016 Italian Science Book prize (Premio letterario Galileo 2016); 2018 Innovation in Academia Award (University of Kent); 2019 Honorary member for live of the Working Time Society; 2019 German Sleep Foundation Award: “Ambassador for Sleep”

LECTURE: “Why shifting to daylight saving time is a bad idea.”
Many regions and countries are reconsidering their use of Daylight Saving Time (DST) but their approaches differ. Japan, for example, is thinking about introducing transitions to DST, while others want to abolish the switch with different solutions: California wants DST all year round and the EU still debates between that and constant Standard Time. DST and circadian biology are equal discussions to which time zone a country, state or region should belong: the US state Massachusetts is considering switching to Atlantic Standard Time, i.e., moving the timing of its social clock (local time) 1 h further east (which is equivalent to perennial DST), and Spain is considering leaving the Central European Time to join Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), i.e., moving its social timing 1 h further west. A wave of DST discussions seems to periodically sweep across the world. Although DST has always been a political issue, it is important to understand the biology associated with these decisions because the circadian clock plays a crucial role in how the outcome of these discussions potentially impacts our health and performance. In this talk, I give the necessary background to understand how the circadian clock, the social clock, the sun clock, time zones, and DST interact.