Johanna H. Meijer#
| Membership Number: | 5901 |
| Membership type: | ORDINARY |
| Section: | PHYSIOLOGY & NEUROSCIENCE |
| Affiliated section(s): | EARTH & COSMIC SCIENCES |
| Elected: | 2021 |
| Main Country of Residence: | THE NETHERLANDS |
| Homepage(s): | https://www.johannahmeijer.com/ |
| ORCID: | 0000-0001-6619-5312 |
Present and Previous Positions
- 2021 Dutch Chair Bioclock Consortium
- 2020 Elected Annual “Ambassador of the Night”, Initiative of the Dutch Nature and Environment Federation, aiming to reduce light pollution for the benefit of biodiversity
- 2007 - present Professor and Head of Neurophysiology, Dept. Cell and Chemical Biology, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands
- 2015 - present Board member, National Research Agenda (NWA) for Complexity Research (Grip on Complexity), Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) with the aim to establish a cross-discipline cluster for Complexity Research
- 2013 - 2019 Visiting Professor Oxford University, Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute, Dept. of Ophthalmology,Oxford University, Oxford, UK
- 2012 - 2019 Content Development and Coordinator, Annual Interdisciplinary Honours Courses, LUMC
- 2015 - 2018 Board member, Life Sciences, Lorentz Center (Center for (inter)national conferences and workshops), Leiden, The Netherlands
- 2011 - 2014 Board member (LUMC representative) for content development of Honours education program, Leiden University
- 2008 - 2011 Co-founder and Organizer, “Vitaal” (LUMC Network for Female Scientists and Clinicians)
- 2001 - 2007 Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, LUMC
- 1992 - 2001 Assistant Professor, Department of Physiology, LUMC
Fields of Scholarship
- Systems biology and complexity theory; emergent properties
- Improving health by strengthening clock function; small molecules, exercise, brain stimulation
- Disease as a result of clock disturbances (sleep disturbances, metabolic syndrome, depression, cancer-related fatigue)
- Nocturnal light pollution and biodiversity
- Field research and population dynamics
- Aging
- Clinical: Improvement of clinical practice by environmental cycles at neonatal and intensive care units
- Light effects on the human and animal clock
- Chronopharmacology: optimizing time of drug application
- Neuronal network organization of the circadian clock
Honours and Awards
- 2014 - presentElected Member of the Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij der Wetenschappen (KHMW; Royal Dutch Society of Sciences)
- 2020 NWA-ORC Grant, (Dutch research grant to enable academic research on societally relevant questions) Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Coordinator, €10M
- 2019 ERC Advanced Investigator Grant: “The biological clock of day-active mammals”.
- 2013 - 2019 Honorary visiting professorship Oxford University, Oxford, United Kingdom
- 2016 Aschoff and Honma Prize in Biological Rhythm Research (most prestigious international prize in the circadian research field, awarded biannually; second ever female awardee; International selection committee chaired by Dr. Takao Kondo.
- 2016 Scientific member of the Organisations for Social Partners in Hospitals in the Netherlands; StAZ (non-academic hospitals) and SoFoKleS (Academic Medical Centers). Provided scientific input for app for nursing staff to deal with rotating shift work
- 2015 Board member, National Research Agenda (NWA) Complexity cluster; successfully raised €19.5M for Dutch Complexity Research
- 2015 Named Ariens Kappers Lecture at the European Biological Rhythms Society, Manchester, UK
- 2013 - 2015 Elected Member at Large of the board of the Society for Biological Rhythm Research, USA.
- 1999 Best Teacher Award for the period 1994 - 1999 in Biopharmaceutical Sciences (Faculty of Natural Sciences, Leiden University)
- 1993 Aschoff’s Rule (prize for eminent contributions in chronobiology supporting the interdisciplinary spirit of the field), received by the previous Aschoff’s rule prize winner, Nobel prize winner Jeffrey Hall
- 1989 - 1992 Fellowship of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), a prestigious postdoc fellowship for promising young scientists
- 1989 PhD, cum laude, University of Leiden
