Invited International Faculty
Dr. Ellemarie Altena
Dr. Ellemarije Altena did her PhD thesis on the structural and functional brain correlates of insomnia in the group of Prof. dr. Eus van Someren at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
In 2009 she started her first post-doctoral position in the group of Dr. James Rowe at the University of Cambridge, UK, investigating dopaminergic effects on prefrontal functions in Parkinson’s disease with functional neuroimaging.
Currently she is setting up functional neuroimaging experiments to study cognitive functions in a large aging population at CITA-Alzheimer in San Sebastian, Spain.
Dr. Célyne H. Bastien
Dr. Célyne H. Bastien is a Professor of Psychology at Laval University (Université Laval) in Quebec city, Canada. She serves as Director of the Human Behavioral Neurosciences Laboratory (Sleep and ERPs) at the Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec as well as Director of the Undergraduate Programs at the School of Psychology.
She also is currently the Vice-President (Research) of the Canadian Sleep Society.
Dr. Bastien’s research program aims at studying the neurophysiological bases of insomnia (to better understand the consequences of insomnia) by probing the EEG while studying ERPs in different types of insomnia individuals. In addition, one of her research focus is aimed at studying sleep protection mechanisms during sleep and arousal determinants. Her research protocols has mostly concentrated on middle-aged individuals but will soon include older adults.
Her research has been funded by several sources, including the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, National Institutes of Health, National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Affective Disorders, Health Canada and Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.
Professor K Ray Chaudhuri
Professor K Ray Chaudhuri is Consultant Neurologist and Professor in Neurology / Movement Disorders at Kings College Hospital NHS foundation Trust, University Hospital Lewisham, Kings College London and the Institute of Psychiatry.
He is a recognized teacher and active researcher within the Guy's, King's and St Thomas' School of Medicine, London, UK and is the medical director of the National Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence at Kings College, London.
He also serves as chairman of the RLS:UK and International PD non motor group, a member of the Movement Disorders Society appointments committee, the Task force of practice parameter group for PD and RLS, American Academy Neurology, the steering group of the Medicines Management Committee and Gene Therapy Advisory Group for the Department of Health, UK, advisor of the Health Technology Assessment committee of the Department of Health, UK and is the lead clinician for the 18 week pathway for management of PD initiated by the UK, Department of Health.
Ms Simone de Lacy BSc RPSGT
She is the president of the European Society of Sleep Technologists since 2008. Formerly she was a consultant sleep technologist at Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Hospitals from 1980 to 2010. In 1989 she became a member of the British Sleep Society and a decade later was elected onto their executive committee. She organised the first BSS technologists conference in 1999 which have run annually ever since.
She has been a speaker and taught at a variety of sleep courses and conferences including the BSS technical and Scientific meetings, the ARTP Advances Sleep Course, BTS/ARTP Sleep Course the International Sleep Medicine Course and the Glasgow MSc in Behavioural Sleep Medicine. She has presented research at the BSS, ESST, AASM and WASM. She now lives in Spain and runs sleep physiology training courses.
Dr. Sean P.A. Drummond
Dr. Sean P.A. Drummond is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the VA San Diego Healthcare System and University of California San Diego. He serves as Director of the Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program and Associate Director of the Mood Disorders Psychotherapy Program at the VA, as well as Co-Director of the UCSD-VA San Diego Psychology Internship Training Program.
Dr. Drummond’s research program aims to better understand the effects of operational and clinical sleep loss on cognition, brain function, psychiatric symptoms, and quality of life. He studies experimental sleep deprivation, as well as sleep changes and sleep loss associated with aging, insomnia, and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His research has been funded by several sources, including the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, Department of Defense, and industry.
Dr. Drummond’s clinical expertise lies in treating stress-related sleep disorders, such insomnia and chronic nightmares, as well as mood disorders such as depression and bipolar.
Dr Jason Ellis
After completing his undergraduate degree at Thames Valley University in 1999, he completed an MSc in Health Psychology at the University of Surrey and subsequently his PhD in Sleep Psychology. His current role is Director of the Northumbria Centre for Sleep Research, which is located in Northumbria University (UK) where Dr. Ellis is also a Reader in Psychology.
He is a Chartered Practicing Health Psychologist under the British Psychological Society and the Health Professions Council and his research focuses around the bio-behavioural predictors and correlates that influence the transition between acute and chronic insomnia, the genotypic basis of diurnal preference and its relationship with both endogenous and exogenous markers of circadian timing, the application of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) in vulnerable populations (people with chronic psychological or physical health problems) and communications about risk due to sleeplessness and sleepiness between health-care providers and the public.
He has contributed to several key government health initiatives including The Matrix (Scotland) and the recent White Paper: Liberating the NHS. He has obtained funding from the Economic and Social Research Council, the Wellcome Trust, Gateshead PCT, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the National Science Council of Taiwan, and the British Academy. Additionally he has consulted for several companies including; Cherry Active, Mammoth Sport, Transport for London and Cussons Pearl.
Dr Peter Fenwick
Dr Peter Fenwick has a long and distinguished involved in the area of Neurophysiology, Neuropsychiatry and Sleep disorders. He graduated from Cambridge University and subsequently trained in general medicine Neurophsiology and Psychiatry rapidly becoming an authority in the areas of Neuropsychiatry, Epilepsy and Sleep. He became the head of the Neurophysiology, Sleep and epilepsy unit and the Institute of Psychiatry & Maudsley Hospital, which he ran for twenty years.
In that time he was also chairman of the Scientific and Medical Network, a group of doctors and scientists seeking to deepen understanding in science and medicine. He has had a longstanding interest in brain function, the relationship of the mind and the brain and the “problem” of consciousness. He has an extensive research record and has published over 240 papers in medical and scientific journals on brain function and also several books.
Dr Jane Hicks
Dr Jane Hicks trained in General Practice and then Psychiatry. She is now a Liaison Psychiatrist in Bristol, UK and at present is working as Consultant Perinatal Psychiatrist. She has a clinical and research interest in Sleep Disorders which was iniated in 1994 when she completed a sleep research fellowship at the University of Toronto, Canada.
On return to the UK she started a sleep clinic at the Burden Neuropsychiatric Centre and completed her MD thesis in Insomnia. She has also run a successful CBT-I Group Insomnia programme in Bristol both in a tertiary referral centre and general practice. Her other sleep interests include narcolepsy, sleep in psychiatric disorders and postnatal depression. Recently she has presented at European Psychiatry meetings to promote interest in sleep disorders within psychiatry.
Dr Chris Idzikowski
Chris's formal interest in sleep began in Edinburgh where he earned his PhD working with Emeritus Professor Ian Oswald, the UK's founding father of sleep research. He was Hon Treasurer of the British Sleep Society when it was first set up and subsequently became the founding Chairman of the Royal Society of Medicine Forum on sleep and its disorders and guided its transition to become the Sleep Medicine Section.
He has held many honorary appointments, both health authority (Oxford) and University (e.g Queen's University of Belfast, Visiting Professor, Surrey University) he has also contributed to various sleep-related charitable organisations (e.g. Finland's Unettomat) as well as publishing numerous papers and books on sleep, including "Learn to sleep well" (Duncan Baird, 2000) and "Sleep (HarperCollins, 2007)".
Michael Perlis
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Director of the Upenn Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program
University of Pennsylvania
Dr Perlis areas of expertise include sleep in psychiatric disorders, neurocognitive phenomena in insomnia, the cognitive and behavioral mechanisms of action of sedative hypnotics, and the development of alternative treatments for insomnia. His clinical expertise is in the area of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and he is the principle author of the first text book in this field (Treating Sleep Disorders: The Principles and Practice of Behavioral Sleep Medicine, Wiley & Sons) and he is the Senior author of two textbooks on Behavioral Sleep Medicine Interventions for sleep disorders.
Professor C Shapiro
Professor of Psychiatry and Opthalmology at the University of Toronto
Director of the Sleep & Alertness Clinic & Sleep Research Laboratory, Toronto Western Hospital
Director of the Youthdale Child & Adolescent Sleep Clinic, Toronto
Dr Shapiro has been involved in sleep research for over twenty-five years. He trained in medicine in South Africa subsequently doing his PhD in sleep physiology at the University of Edinburgh. He came to Canada approximately eighteen years ago as a full Professor in the Department of Psychiatry. He is Director of the Neuropsychiatry Program at the Toronto Western Hospital and Director of the Sleep and Alertness Clinic.
Virend K. Somers
Dr. Somers’ research program focuses on the interactions between sleep, sleep disorders, and cardiac and vascular disease. Current areas of investigation include sleep apnea, sleep-related myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death. His program is also investigating the role of sleep apnea in predisposing to adverse outcomes in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
In addition, he is involved in ongoing studies exploring the interaction between sleepapnea and incident and recurrent atrial fibrillation.
Other related work includes the biology of obesity and its interaction with disrupted sleep. His research program is supported by the NIH and the American Heart Association.
Professor Adrian J Williams
Professor Williams graduated from University College Hospital, London and after a lectureship at The Cardiothoracic Institute, Brompton Hospital in 1975 took up an appointment at Harvard, Boston where his interest in sleep began with the investigation of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (S.I.D.S.) and publication of a definitive study implicating obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) as a cause of this syndrome.
An invitation to University of California (UCLA) in 1977 to take up a post as Chest Physician allowed this early interest in OSA in infants to extend into adult patients with the very first reports of OSA causing hypertension, and of oximetry as a natural diagnostic tool. In 1985 Professor Williams became tenured Professor of Medicine at UCLA and co-director of the UCLA Sleep Laboratory. As Sleep Medicine gelled as a specialty, Professor Williams was one of the first to take the Board exams in 1989 to become an accredited polysomnographer and later member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. In 1994 he returned to London where he established the Sleep Disorders Centre at St. Thomas' Hospital. He has published extensively on Sleep Disorders including more than 110 peer reviewed original scientific papers and more than 60 other published papers including chapters and books. His main interests now lie in sleep-related diaphragm dysfunction, the recognition and diagnosis of periodic limb movement disorder and the genetics of parasomnias. Professor Williams is a Diplomat of the American Board of Sleep Medicine, a founding member of The British Sleep Foundation, the Sleep Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine, and the RLS.UK Group and was recently awarded the first Chair in Sleep Medicine at Kings College, London.
