Prof. Debra Jean Skene is a professor of Neuroendocrinology at the University of Surrey, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences in Guildford, United Kingdom. Prof. Skene is Section Lead in Chronobiology and has contributed over 25 years and more than 190 publications of research on human circadian rhythm and related abnormalities.
She obtained her Bachelor of Pharmacy and Master of Science at Rhodes University and
Doctor of Philosophy at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, in South Africa.
Prof. Skene and her team are most known for their work regarding the effects of
melatonin and light of certain wavelength on circadian rhythm associated disorders. Her
research is mainly focused on circadian rhythm sleep disorders, especially in the context of
ageing, blindness, neurodegenerative and metabolic incidences. At present, Prof. Skene's research team studies the role of sleep, circadian clock and metabolism in health and disease, while exploiting LC-MS metabolomics to unravel the impact of variable factors on the human genome.
Prof. Skene has served as the president of the European Biological Rhythms Society (EBRS), as the vice president of the European Sleep Research Society (ESRS) and as the chair of the Gordon Research Conference in 2012. She has earned the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, granted only to researchers based in UK, for their excellence of research and pioneering work. Currently, she is an associate editor for the Journal of Sleep Research and a member of the Editorial Board of Chronobiology International.