On the Essential Principles and Practice of Circadian Biology: A Road Map

Authors

Roelof A. Hut
University of Groningen
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4552-0985
William J. Schwartz
University of Texas

Synopsis

Circadian Biology is about the adaptation of life to our rotating world, to the Earth’s 24-hour rhythm of day and night.  Not surprisingly, the field has attracted considerable popular and scientific interest from people seeking further study or applications.  This new diversity is exciting and invigorating!  But newcomers may have little or no foundational knowledge on the essential principles and practice of circadian biology, no framework upon which to incorporate their disciplinary experience and expertise.  If this describes you, our intention is to provide you with a Road Map – call it a launching pad, jump start, gateway, or primer – as a first (and hopefully engaging and helpful) step to enter the field and as an entrée to its now voluminous literature. 

Publisher: University of Groningen Press
Broerstraat 4 9712 CP Groningen

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Author Biographies

Roelof A. Hut, University of Groningen

is Professor of Chronobiology at the University of Groningen.  He was trained as a chronobiologist and received his Ph.D. (2001) in the laboratory of Serge Daan at the University of Groningen.  Post-doctoral fellowships were conducted in the laboratories of Howard Cooper (Lyon), Michael Menaker (Charlottesville, Virginia), and in Groningen.  His scientific work has covered many aspects of chronobiology, including circadian light responses, suprachiasmatic nucleus physiology, evolutionary ecology of circadian organization, photoreception, thermoregulation, sleep, and photoperiodism, using species like insects, various nocturnal and diurnal rodent species, and humans.  He is also a founding member and current chair of the International Hibernation Society, where his early fascination with hibernation is combined with his interest in physiology and biological rhythms.  Being trained by prominent early scientists in chronobiology, who were themselves trained by the “founding fathers” of the field, has afforded Dr. Hut a wide perspective on all aspects of chronobiology, with a focus to the future and a respect for the past.

William J. Schwartz, University of Texas

is a Distinguished Teaching Professor of The University of Texas System, in the Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School, The University of Texas at Austin; and a Visiting Professor of Chronobiology at the University of Groningen.  He received his M.D. (1974) and training in clinical neurology at the University of California, San Francisco and post-doctoral work in neurophysiology and cerebral metabolism at the National Institute of Mental Health (Bethesda, Maryland).  For over 40 years, his scientific work has focused on the neural regulation of mammalian circadian rhythms.  He was elected Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Chronobiology (1993) and President of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR) (2004-2006) and served a 6-year term as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biological Rhythms (2014-2019).  Honors include Boerhaave Professor (Leiden, 2005), Baerends Visiting Chair (Groningen, 2008), 9th Pittendrigh-Aschoff Lecturer (SRBR, 2014), Clark Way Harrison Visiting Professor (Washington Univ. St. Louis, 2016), and 5th Johannes Ariëns Kappers Lecturer (European Biological Rhythms Society, 2017), among other distinctions.

Cover On the Essential Principles and Practice of Circadian Biology: A Road Map

Published

July 3, 2025

Categories

Keywords:

Circadian Biology, Chronobiology, Annual rhythms, Neuroscience

Details about the available publication format: PDF

PDF

Publication date of print counterpart (19)

2025-10-21