Derk-Jan Dijk PhD, FRSB, FMedSci is Professor of Sleep and Physiology, Director of the Surrey Sleep Research Centre and UK Dementia Research Institute Group Leader. He previously was in the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Zurich, at Harvard Medical School and in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr Dijk has 35 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; understanding age and sex related differences in sleep physiology and sleep disorders; effects of hypnotics and wake promoting compounds, new technology for sleep monitoring in dementia. Dr Dijk has published more than 250 research and review papers in the area of sleep and circadian rhythms. Dr Dijk is invited frequently to speak at international sleep meetings and he has given opening and plenary lectures for the joint meeting of the Canadian Sleep Society, American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society, The European Sleep Research Society and the Hong Kong Sleep Medicine Society. Dr Dijk 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).