Derk‐Jan Dijk

Derk-Jan Dijk studied biology at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) where he received his PhD in Medical Sciences in 1988. As a post-doc and later as a Senior Research Associate at the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Zurich he continued the study of sleep homeostasis. As a junior faculty member at Harvard Medical School he investigated the role of the circadian pacemaker in the regulation of sleep and waking performance. He returned to Europe in 1999 and founded the Surrey Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey (Guildford UK). He is Distinguished Professor of Sleep and Physiology and Director of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey. He is Group Leader for Improving Sleep and Circadian Disruption in the UK Dementia Research Institute. Dr Dijk has more than 40 years of experience in clinical sleep research. His current research interests include: the interaction of sleep homeostasis and circadian rhythmicity in the regulation of sleep and cognition; identification of novel-biomarkers for susceptibility to the negative effects of sleep loss; sleep and circadian disruption in dementia and the validation and implementation of new technologies for monitoring sleep and circadian rhythms in dementia. Dr Dijk has published more than 300 research and review papers in the area of sleep and circadian rhythms. Dr Dijk is invited frequently to speak at international sleep meetings. He has served as an Associate and Deputy Editor to SLEEP and Editor of the Journal of Sleep Research. He also serves as consultant to the pharmaceutical industry. He was a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder and a recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Sleep Research Society (USA).