Professor Markku Partinen, MD PhD FAAN (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8182-9368), is currently Medical Director of the Terveystalo Helsinki Sleep Clinic, and Principal Investigator of Sleep Medicine at Institute of Clinical Medicine, Clinicum, University of Helsinki, Finland. He is a neurologist with special competence in sleep medicine and traffic medicine. He obtained his medical degree in 1975 and his Diplome d’Université de Docteur en Medecine (DrMed) in Montpellier, France in 1977. He received his PhD in 1982 (epidemiology of sleep disorders) in Helsinki, Finland. He has worked as a postdoc researcher at Stanford University, USA in 1985-86 and as a visiting professor in Bologna, Italy in 1987. His main research interests in sleep medicine have been sleep apnea, excessive daytime sleepiness and fatigue, narcolepsy, insomnia. He has published more than 370 original articles in peer reviewed Journals in addition to writing many book Chapters and editing several books. His Hirsch factor (H-factor) is 65 in ISI Web of Sciences, 71 in Scopus and 92 in Google Scholar. He has served in the Editorial Boards and as Assistant Editor in Sleep, Journal of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine. He has had many International positions in different research societies including Coordinating Secretary of the World Federation of Sleep Research Societies (WFSRS), Vice-President of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) and Founding member and President of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM). He initiated the ICOSS Collaboration in March 2020.
Dr. Ilona Merikanto, PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1222-6678), is a researcher at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Medicine, Medicum, and a visiting researcher at the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare. She received her PhD at the University of Helsinki in Biology at 2016. Her h-index is 24 (Google Scholar) with more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in esteemed scientific journals, most as first author. Separately from scientific articles she has written book chapters, review articles in Finnish in medical journals and National Institute Reports. Her research focuses on how individual circadian rhythm profile (chronotype) and circadian misalignment associate with behavior, genetic factors, sleep, wellbeing and mental and somatic health across life span from early childhood to old age. Merikanto has been involved in the ICOSS project as a core group member in collecting the Finnish survey data, designing the second ICOSS survey and coordinating the international data collection.
Professor Bjørn Bjorvatn, MD PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7051-745X), is a professor in the Department of Global Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Bergen and Director of the Norwegian Competence Center for Sleep Disorders at Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway. He is a certified somnologist (European Sleep Research Society) and specialist in general practice. Bjorvatn received his PhD in basic sleep research (Serotonin and the sleep/wake cycle) in 1995. His main research interests are in circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders and insomnia. Bjorvatn has authored more than 230 original peer-reviewed articles, several review papers, and many chapters in English textbooks (e.g., chapters on circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders in the official European Sleep Medicine Textbook). Bjorvatn has written four books on sleep-related topics in Norwegian (one self-help book on insomnia and one self-help book on how to cope with night work and irregular working hours, and two textbooks on sleep medicine) and more than 300 publications in Norwegian. His h-index is 62 (Research Gate). He is working clinically with patients one day per week at Bergen Sleep Disorders Center, which he founded in 1996.
Professor Frances Chung, MD PhD (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9576-3606), is a professor of the Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine at University Health Network, University of Toronto. She is the ResMed Research Chair of Anesthesia, and Sleep Medicine. She is a co-founder and past president of the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine. She is an editor in Anesthesia and Analgesia and Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. In total, she has 326 publications with a H index of 76 and almost 20,000 citations. Her research work has been recognized through multiple awards such as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada’s McLaughlin-Gallie Visiting Professorship, the Research Recognition Award from the Canadian Anesthesiologist’s Society; the Distinguished Services Award from the Society For Ambulatory Anesthesia, and Life-time Achievement Award by the Society of Anesthesia and Sleep Medicine. To celebrate 2017 World Anesthesia Day, her work "High STOP-Bang score indicates a high probability of sleep apnea" (http://www.stopbang.ca) was chosen to be the Top 25 Most Important Articles in the history of Anesthesia by British Journal of Anaesthesia.
Professor Thomas Penzel, PhD (ORCHID: 0000-0002-4304-0112), graduated from physics (1986), human biology (1991), and physiology (1995) at the University Marburg, Germany. In 2006 he moved to Berlin where he is the director of research of the Interdisciplinary Sleep Medicine Center at the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany). In 2001, he received the Bial award for Clinical Medicine in Portugal, in 2008 the Bill Gruen Award for Innovations in Sleep Research by the American Sleep Research Society, and in 2014 the distinguished research award by the Chinese Sleep Research Society. He was elected as IEEE EMB distinguished lecturer for 2021-2023. Currently he is president of the German Sleep Society and Adcom member of IEEE EMBS. He was IEEE EMBC 2019 conference chair, co-chair of earlier EMBS conferences, and World Sleep Society in 2005 in Berlin. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Sleep and Breathing, and editorial board member of several journals in the field of sleep research and biomedical engineering. He has published 400 journal papers (Pubmed), 80 book chapters, and edited several books. His research interests are sleep medicine, biomedical signals, wearables for sleep recording, the cardiovascular and the neural system related to the sleep-wake regulation, and the pathophysiology of sleep disordered breathing.
Professor Colin Espie, PhD DSc(Med) CPsychol CSci FBPsS FRSM FAASM (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1294-8734), is the Professor of Sleep Medicine at the University of Oxford, where he is Director of the Experimental & Clinical Sleep Medicine research programme, and Clinical Director of Oxford Online Programme in Sleep Medicine. He is also an Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology, at the University of Glasgow. He is internationally known for his work on insomnia and its treatment, using cognitive behavioural therapeutics (CBTx). He has published over 300 scientific papers and several textbooks. He is Deputy Editor of Journal of Sleep Research, serves on the editorial board of Sleep Medicine Reviews, and was awarded Honorary Fellow of the BABCP (British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies) in 2015, and the Mary A. Carskadon Outstanding Educator Award by the Sleep Research Society in 2017. He is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Colin is actively involved in print, TV and social media regarding the science of sleep. He also co-founded https://www.bighealth.com/ the developer of SleepioTM which is now widely available in the NHS-UK and in the US healthcare system.
Brigitte Holzinger, PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5385-4091), born in Vienna, Austria is a psychologist (Univ. of Vienna, Research for PhD. Thesis at Stanford University with Stephen LaBerge), psychotherapist for Integrative Gestalt, supervisor and clinical and health psychologist, and sleep and dream researcher, (University)teacher and writer. Her main interest is lucid dreaming, dreaming, sleep and sleep research. 1989, she founded the Institute for Consciousness and Dream Research (www.traum.ac.at) and has organized international and interdisciplinary conferences, such as “DREAMING & CONSCIOUSNESS” in 1998 and REM50 in 2003. She is a founding member of the ASRA (Austrian Sleep Research Association, 1991). She was accredited as Somnologist by ESRS (European Sleep Research Society) in 2013 and is a member of the EIN (the European Insomnia Network) and the European Academy for Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment of Insomnia (CBT-I). She applied and evaluated lucid dreaming as a therapeutic technique for nightmares and founded “Sleep Coaching” – a non pharmacological approach for overcoming Sleep Problems and Sleep Disorders with her colleague, Gerhard Klösch (www.schlafcoaching.org). Since 2011 she organizes annual press conferences for the World Sleep Day in the name of the Austrian Sleep Research Society (ASRA). Since 2015, “Sleep Coaching” also is a postgraduate 3-semester course at the Medical University, Vienna, founded and directed by Brigitte Holzinger (www.meduniwien.ac.at/zk-schlafcoaching).
Professor Luigi De Gennaro, PhD (http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3613-6631), is currently full Professor at University of Rome Sapienza. He is a psychologist with competence in basic and clinical sleep research. He obtained his psychological degree in 1981 and his PhD in 1989 (experimental psychology) in Rome, Italy. His main research interests have been sleep onset, sleep regulation, dreaming, sleep EEG analysis, sleepiness, fatigue, and insomnia. He has published more than 200 original articles in peer reviewed Journals in addition to writing many book Chapters. His Hirsch factor (H-factor) is 41 in ISI Web of Sciences, 44 in Scopus and 55 in Google Scholar. He serves in the Editorial Boards and as Associate Editor in Journal of Sleep Research, Brain Sciences (Section Editor-in-Chief Behavioral Neuroscience), Frontiers (Associated Editor in Sleep Disorders), Nature and Science of Sleep. He is secretary of the Italian national society of Sleep Medicine (Associazione Italiana di Medicina del Sonno -AIMS-) and member of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS).
Professor Yves Dauvilliers, MD PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0683-6506), is a professor of Neurology and Physiology, and Head of the clinical and research activity of the sleep laboratory at the University of Montpellier, France, coordinator of the French National Reference Network for Orphan Diseases (Narcolepsy, Hypersomnia, Kleine-Levin Syndrome) and director of one research group in the Institute of Neuroscience INSERM, Montpellier. He is an author or coauthor of more than 400 papers published in international and national peer-reviewed journals, several book chapters, and he also edited three French book related to sleep medicine.
Professor Yun Kwok Wing is currently the Chairman and Professor in the Department of Psychiatry of the Faculty of Medicine of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5745-5474). He is also the Director of the Li Chiu Kong Family Sleep Assessment Unit of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Wing has diverse research interest in sleep and circadian medicine, psychiatric disorders, neuropsychiatry, and transcultural psychopharmacology. He has active contribution to the scientific communities, including his leadership role in the Hong Kong Society of Sleep Medicine (ex-President, HKSSM) and Asian Sleep Society of Sleep Medicine (ASSM, Vice-president of Education). He was also involved in the World Association of Sleep Medicine (Scientific Committee, 2011, 2013 and 2015) and World Sleep 2017 and 2019 (Scientific Committee). He is currently serving at 6 editorial boards including his role as Associate Editor in the journal ‘Behavioral Sleep Medicine’ and Deputy Editor in ‘Sleep Medicine Research’.
Professor Damien Léger, MD PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1168-480X), is the Head of the University Hospital Hôtel Dieu, APHP-5, Sleep and Vigilance Center in Paris, France (Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris, Université Paris Descartes, Université de Paris. He is Professor of Medicine at the Université de Paris Faculté de Médecine. His primary research interests focus on the impact of sleep disorders on public health, and he serves as a consultant to the World Health Organization, the European Council, the European Department of Mobility, French National Health Agency and the French Ministry of Labor, Health, transportation, education and environment, advising these institutions on the influence of environmental factors such as light, noise, shift and night work and work conditions on sleep and alertness. Damien Léger was from 2017 to 2019 President of the French Sleep Research and Medicine Society (Société Française de Recherche et de Médecine du Sommeil) and was President of the French Institute of Sleep and Vigilance (Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance) from 2010 to 2015, member of the European Board of the Insomnia European network. Dr Léger is the author of eight books (The latest: Sleep disorders their impact on public health and Troubles du Sommeil PUF “Que sais-je?) and over 170 scientific publications.
Michael R. Nadorff, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Mississippi State University where he also directs the Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program. He received his bachelor’s in Psychology and Computer Applications from the University of Notre Dame in 2007 and received his master’s and doctorate in Psychology (Clinical) at West Virginia University in 2009 and 2012, respectively. He completed a clinical psychology internship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX in 2012 before joining the faculty at Mississippi State University, where he has been since 2012. Dr. Nadorff’s research is focused on sleep, suicide, and aging, with a particular focus on insomnia and nightmares. He has published more than 70 peer-reviewed manuscripts in journals such as SLEEP, Sleep Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, and Behavioral Sleep Medicine. His work has received extramural grant support from the NIH, CDC, and SAMHSA in the U.S.
Christian Benedict, PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8911-4068), currently works as a senior researcher in the Department of Neuroscience at Uppsala University, where he heads a team with three doctoral students and one postdoctoral researcher. His group investigates the role of sleep disturbances in developing and progressing common diseases, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and Alzheimer's disease. CB has authored more than 140 peer-reviewed articles. His h-index is 49 (Google Scholar). He has also released a popular scientific book about sleep, translated to Swedish, German, Japanese, and Russian.
Assistant Professor Adrijana Košćec Bjelajac, PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0547-0047), psychologist and psychotherapist, ECP, ECGP, works as scientific associate at the Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health (IMROH), and as a psychotherapist in her own practice. She obtained scientific degrees in psychology at the University of Zagreb and Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health in the field of circadian rhythm research (M.A. in 2002) and adolescent sleep (Ph.D. in 2006). She has been a member of the European Sleep Research Society since 2003 and as a young scientist received two awards from the society. She participated in several sleep and circadian rhythm training courses including Sleep and Chronobiology Summer Behavioral Sciences Research Apprenticeship as a William C. Dement Fellow with Professor Mary A. Carskadon at Brown University, USA. Before joining ICOSS she has been collaborating on many sleep related research projects, and involved in different public sleep awareness activities. She had been teaching a graduate course Psychology of Sleep and Wakefulness at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb over 10 years with other members of IMROH Sleep Team. She has also been teaching circadian rhythm aspects of work psychology at the Safety, health at work and environment study, Faculty of Metallurgy, University of Zagreb.
Kentaro Matsui, MD PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4538-5381), is a medical director in the Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Center Hospital, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry. He is a board certified physician of the Japanese Society of Sleep Research and a board certified psychiatrist of the Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology. He obtained his medical degree in 2009 and received his PhD in 2016 (epidemiology of sleep disorders) in Tokyo, Japan. His main research interests are sleepiness, parasomnias, insomnia, circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders and schizophrenia. He has authored 25 original peer-reviewed articles in English, and more than 90 publications in Japanese. His h-index is 5 (Google Scholar).
Cátia Reis, PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6585-3993), chronobiologist, is an assistant professor at the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Human Sciences, Catholic University in Lisbon, Portugal. She is one of the coordinators of the first Post-graduation in Sleep Psychology in Portugal, recently opened to international students. She is a researcher at the Catholic Research Center for Psychological, Family and Social Wellbeing (CRC-W). She also collaborates regularly with the IMM and ISAMB from the Lisbon Medical School and CENC – Sleep Medicine Center. She is an early career researcher that received her PhD in Environmental Health from the Lisbon Medical School (Sleep and Chronotypes), in 2020. Her main research areas are sleep and circadian rhythms and she has published several papers with data from healthy participants, as well as from sleep medicine patients. Her main focus is shift work and delayed sleep-wake phase disorder (wrote the book chapter of the pathophysiology of delayed sleep phase disorder of the most recent edition of the official European Sleep Medicine Textbook). She was a founding member of the ESRS Early Career Research Network.
Maria Korman, PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1895-0189), is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ariel University, Israel. She began studying biology, and during her M.Sc and Ph.D at the Neurobiology Department, Weizmann Institute of Science, she became interested in human neuroplasticity, sleep and memory. Later she was a postdoctoral fellow in the Functional Neuroimaging Unit at Montreal University, where she researched the role of day-time and night-time sleep in learning and memory in the elderly. Maria has authored more than 40 original peer-reviewed articles and proceedings in journals such as Nature Neuroscience, PNAS, Sleep and Computers in Human Behaviour (citation index >1650, h-index 14). Currently, Maria directs and manages research at her Temporal Organization of Behaviour laboratory (TO-Be lab), focusing on the exploration of “time factors” in human sleep, cognition and wellbeing in controlled laboratory-based, as well as, in ecological settings. The lab develops and evaluates novel non-drug neuromodulatory intervention protocols and assistive technologies, such as vibratory stimulation and light therapy, to optimize cognitive, physical and psychological wellbeing via improved circadian physiology, optimal arousal levels, and better alignment of evening-oriented individuals with social schedules in general and clinical populations (e.g., ADHD). Maria also conducts educational programs emphasizing the biomedical relevance and the cross-disciplinary nature of circadian rhythms and sleep.
Associate Professor Mariusz Sieminski, MD PhD (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8219-2912), is currently Head of Department of Emergency Medicine at Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland. He is a neurologist with a special interest in sleep and in emergency medicine. He graduated at Medical University of Gdansk, Poland, in 2001. He received his PhD in 2008 (sleep disorders in patients after ischemic stroke) at Medical Univeristy of Gdansk, Poland. He received his habilitation in 2018 (restless legs syndrome and nocturnal hypertension) at Medical Univeristy of Gdansk. His main areas of interests are restless legs syndrome, narcolepsy, epilepsy, emergency medicine and neurotraumatology. He is an author of many original papers, mostly in the field of sleep medicine. He worked as Managing Editor of Polish Journal of Neurology and Neurosurgery. He is member of World Sleep Society, European Academy of Neurology, International and European RLS Study Group (IRLSSG, EuRLSSG).
The ICOSS Core Group include (in alphabetical order): Bjørn Bjorvatn (Bergen, Norway), Frances Chung (Toronto, Canada), Yves Dauvilliers (Montpellier, France), Luigi De Gennaro (Rome, Italy), Colin Espie (Oxford, The UK), Brigitte Holzinger (Vienna, Austria), Ilona Merikanto (Helsinki, Finland), Charles Morin (Quebec, Canada), Markku Partinen (Helsinki, Finland), Thomas Penzel (Berlin, Germany), Yun Kwok Wing (Hong Kong, China). For interest in ICOSS data/studies, the core group should be contacted: Ilona.merikanto@helsinki.fi and cc: markpart@icloud.com.