Charles Czeisler

Charles A. Czeisler, Ph.D., M.D., F.R.C.P. is the Baldino Professor of Sleep Medicine, Director of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. He is an Affiliate Faculty Member in the Neuroscience Program at Harvard Medical School and the Health Science and Technology Program at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Dr. Czeisler graduated magna cum laude with a degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Harvard College, where he was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 1999. He received his Ph.D. in Neuro- and Bio-behavioral Sciences and his M.D. from Stanford University. He is a recipient of the Robert R.J. Hilker Award in Occupational Medicine (1991); Aschoff’s Rule (2001); the E.H. Ahrens, Jr. Lecture Award from the Association for Patient Oriented Research (2002); the William C. Dement Academic Achievement Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2002); the NIOSH Director’s Award for Scientific Leadership in Occupational Safety And Health for his research on resident physician work hours and safety (2005); the National Sleep Foundation 2006 Healthy Sleep Community Award (Harvard Work Hours and Health and Safety Group); the J. Gerald Reves Duke Heart Center Lecture Award from Duke Medical Center (2007); the Dorcas Cummings Memorial Lecture Award from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (2007); the National Sleep Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (2008) and the Lord Adrian Medal from the Royal Society of Medicine, London (2008) ; the Sleep Research Society Distinguished Scientist Award (2008); the Mark O. Hatfield Public Policy Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (2010); the Harriet Hardy Award from New England College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (2010) and the Mary A. Carskadon Outstanding Educator Award by Sleep Research Society (2011). He is a past President of the Sleep Research Society, where he chaired the Presidential Task Force on Sleep and Public Policy; a Fellow of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and of the Association of American Physicians; a Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine; a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London); and an elected Member of the American Clinical and Climatological Association, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and the International Academy of Astronautics.

Dr. Czeisler has more than 30 years’ experience in the field of basic and applied research on the physiology of the human circadian timing system and its relationship to the sleep-wake cycle. For more than a decade he served as Team Leader of the Human Performance Factors, Sleep and Chronobiology Team of NASA’s National Space Biomedical Research Institute, which is responsible for developing sleep-wake schedule guidelines and related countermeasures for use by NASA astronauts and mission control personnel during space exploration. Dr. Czeisler has served on and consulted to a number of national and international advisory committees, including the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the Sleep Research Society, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Air Transport Association and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration of the US Department of Transportation. Dr. Czeisler served as a Special Consultant to the Massachusetts Special Commission on Drowsy Driving and was elected Chair of the Sleep Disorders Research Advisory Board for the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Dr. Czeisler has published over 140 original reports in peer-reviewed journals, more than 90 review articles, 5 books/monographs and numerous research abstracts; he has been a member of the editorial boards of American Journal of Medicine, Journal of Biological Rhythms, and Sleep. He was be Keynote Speaker at annual meetings of the Japanese Society for Sleep Research (1996), the Association of Professional Sleep Societies (1997), the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (2002), the Patient Safety Research Conference, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2003), the Committee of Interns & Residents (2005), the American Clinical and Climatological Association (2005), the X International Congress, Brazilian Sleep Research Society (2005), the New Zealand Resident Doctors Association Professional Conference on Safer Working Hours in Medicine (2005), the World Association of Sleep Medicine (2011). Dr. Czeisler has delivered lectures at the World Congress of Chronobiology in Sapporo (2003), the Second International Forum on Sleep Disorders, Sanofi Aventis, Paris (2004), Distinguished Leader in Medicine Lecture, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada (2006), the World Federation of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine Societies (Plenary Speaker, Australia 2007; Japan, 2011), the Harvard Medical School Dubai Center Institute for Postgraduate Education & Research, Dubai (2007), 5th International Sleep Disorders Forum, Canada (2008), the Astronaut Center of China, Beijing (2010), the Decade of the Mind, Singapore (2010) and the European Sleep Research Society (2010).