Professor Russell Foster is the Head of Oxford’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology, the founder and Director of the Sleep and Circadian Research Institute and is a Fellow of Brasenose College Oxford.
His research addresses how circadian rhythms and sleep are generated and regulated and what happens when these systems fail due to societal pressures, age and disease. To date, he has published over 300 scientific papers and received multiple national and international awards.
Russell has been elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Society of Biology, and the Academy of Medical Sciences. He was appointed as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 2015 for services to science. Additionally, he has been a member of the Governing Council of the Royal Society and served as the first Chair of the Royal Society Public Engagement Committee. Previously, Russell chaired the Cheltenham Science Festival and was a Trustee of the Science Museum. Currently he Chairs the Board of Visitors at the History of Science Museum, Oxford.
Russell has written five popular science books. His fifth, entitled Life Time was a bestseller and his new book How Light Gives Us Life, will be published in March 2027.
