Dr. Fred W. Turek PhD
Main Research Focus
Dr. Fred W. Turek received his undergraduate degree in the biological sciences from Michigan State University in 1969, and his PhD from Stanford University in 1973 where he carried out research on circadian and seasonal rhythms. After postdoctoral training at the University of Texas at Austin, he took a faculty position at Northwestern University. He was the Chair of the Department of Neurobiology & Physiology from 1987-98, and is the founder and current Director of the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology at Northwestern University. Dr. Turek was the founding president of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (SRBR) and served in this capacity for six years. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Biological Rhythms from 1995-2000. He is presently a Deputy Editor of the Journal Sleep. He has served on a number of government advisory bodies and his research on biological rhythms has been support by the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, DARPA, as well as a number of private foundations and pharmaceutical companies. He has received a number of awards in recognition of his academic and research achievements, including an NIH Research Career Development Award, two senior International Fogarty Fellowships from the NIH, the Curt P. Richter Prize from the International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology in 1987, a Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and an Distinguished Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). He received an endowed chair and was named the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Biology at Northwestern University in 1995. Dr. Turek’s present research interests are in the genetic, molecular and neural basis for sleep and circadian rhythms with a special interest in the relationship between the sleep and circadian clock system with energy balance and metabolic diseases. His laboratory is working with a number of different animal models for aging, as well as the effects of sleep loss and circadian disruption on health, mental and physical health. He has published over 290 full length papers.
