A conversation about human biology and built environment, between neuroscientist Russell Foster and architect Isak Foged
BIOGRAPHY
Russell Foster
Russell Grant Foster, CBE, FRS FMedSci is a British professor of circadian neuroscience, the Director of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology and the Head of the Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi). He is also a Nicholas Kurti Senior Fellow at Brasenose College at the University of Oxford. Foster and his group are credited with key contributions to the discovery of the non-rod, non-cone, photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (pRGCs) in the mammalian retina which provide input to the circadian rhythm system. He has written and co-authored over a hundred scientific publications.
Russell Foster is a fundamental neuroscientist. His interest is, and has always been, understanding how the body clock (circadian rhythm) and the sleep-wake rhythm are generated and modulated. His early research involved transplanting a specific group of brain cells from one breed of hamster to another breed. In doing so, he was able to demonstrate that it is the brain that sets the rhythm of the body clock.
But perhaps his most recognized scientific discovery – first in mice and then in humans - was that the eye contains a specialized cell, a light sensor that aligns the body clock and the sleep-wake rhythm to the day-night cycle. Without this specialized cell, we would drift out of time with the day. And this singular discovery has changed fundamental tenets of knowledge regarding the effects of light on biologic systems and human physiology.
In 2020 Russell Foster has been awarded with The Daylight Award for Daylight Research.
Isak Worre Foged
Professor at the Institute of Architecture and Design at The Royal Danish Academy, Cluster Leader and Founder of the Cluster for Material Studies, currently building a new exciting research environment including architects, designers, and engineers with affiliated chemists and psychologists.
The research group investigates across material and structural scales, focusing on biogenic material compositions through qualitative and quantitative methods.
His research aims to understand natural and constructed relations between materials, environments and humans, with a particular focus on analyzing and characterizing fast-growing wood species for acoustic and thermal phenomena and performances.
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