Professor Russell Foster CBE FMedSci FRS

Russell Foster is the Professor of Circadian Neuroscience, Director of the Sir Jules Thorn Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi) and Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford. He is also a Fellow at Brasenose College.

Russell’s research addresses how circadian rhythms and sleep are generated and particularly how these systems are regulated by light. He also addresses how and why these systems fail because of societal pressures, age and disease. A key finding was his discovery and characterisation of an unrecognised light-detecting system within the vertebrate eye that regulates circadian rhythms and sleep. By understanding how these non-rod, non-cone photoreceptors regulate the molecular clockwork of circadian rhythms, he and his colleagues are translating these findings to the clinic.

Russell has published over 300 scientific papers and has received multiple national and international awards, including most recently the “Daylight Prize”. He has co-written four popular science books and his fifth, as sole author for Penguin, entitled Life Time was published in May 2022 and was on the Sunday Times Best Seller list in both hardback and paperback. His next book entitled: How Light Gives Us Life, again with Penguin, will be published in early 2027. Russell regularly contributes to radio, television and newspaper articles.

Russell currently chairs the International Exchanges Grants scheme; He is Editor-in-Chief of Interface Focus & is an ex-officio Member of the Publishing Board; He is also the chair of the Places of Science grant scheme.