A medical researcher shows readers how they can protect the needs of people in an economy paced to the round-the-clock performance of machines, describing the risks involved when technological society outpaces human biology.
Dr. Martin Moore-Ede is a former professor of Physiology at Harvard Medical School, and President and CEO of Circadian Technologies, Inc. He is also executive editor of the Working Nights newsletter. He received his medical degrees from Guy's Hospital Medical School in England; his clinical training in Toronto, Canada; and his Ph.D. in Physiology from Harvard University.
He has published over 100 scientific articles and several books, including The Clocks That Time Us, Harvard University Press 1982, and Mathematical Models of the Circadian Sleep-Wake Cycle, Raven Press 1984, on the subject of the biological clocks that time the daily sleep-wake cycles and the rhythms of alertness and performance. He has served as Editor of the "Biological Timekeeping" section of the American Journal of Physiology and has served as Chairman of the International Union of Physiological Science's Commission on Sleep and Circadian Physiology. In 1985, he was awarded the Bowditch Lectureship of the American Physiological Society in recognition of his scientific research.
The Twenty-Four-Hour Society: Understanding Human Limits in a World That Never Stops, has been published in the United States (Addison-Wesley), United Kingdom (Piatkus), Germany (Heyne), Australia (Random House), Japan (Kodansha) and China (China-Times). Reviews from around the world have been overwhelmingly positive. Publishers Weekly reported "this vitally important book offers insights and advice to most anyone who works for a living... could well save many lives and billions of dollars."
Most recently, Dr. Moore-Ede co-AUTHOR: ed The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting a Good Night's Sleep (Alpha Books/Mcmillan, 1998) which included tools for assessing individual sleep personality profiles.
Dr. Moore-Ede pioneered the scientific development of biocompatible work schedules for round-the-clock operations and has developed techniques for enabling employees to be awake, alert, vigilant, and competent twenty-four hours a day. In 1983, he founded Circadian Technologies, Inc., which consults to organizations worldwide on the application of human-centered management and technology to improve industrial safety and productivity. Among the organizations Dr. Moore-Ede has provided consulting services are British Rail, Canadian Pacific, Federal Express, General Electric, General Motors, IBM, Libbey Owens Ford, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Sony, Southern California Edison, and Texaco.
In 1988, Dr. Moore-Ede established the Institute for Circadian Physiology, an independent non-profit research center spun off from a fifteen-year research program at Harvard Medical School. The Institute is dedicated to basic and applied research on how to optimize human safety, performance, and health in our twenty-four-hour world. The Institute has built a broad base of support from Federal research grants and contracts (NASA, NRC, NIH, USAF, and Army), and from corporate sponsors including Alcan, Amoco, Boeing, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Exxon, Foxboro, Liberty Mutual, Matsushita, Mobil, Monsanto, Raytheon, and 3M. Dr. Moore-Ede stepped down from the Institute directorship in 1996 to join Circadian Technologies on a full time basis. He continues to serve on the Institute Board of Trustees.
Widely recognized for his expertise in the role of fatigue in human error accidents and lost productivity, Dr. Moore-Ede has been frequently quoted in various publications and newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, National Geographic, Time, and Business Week. His work has also been featured on the ABC and CBS Evening News, Good Morning America, Today, CNN Business News, 20/20, Oprah Winfrey, and BBC-TV Horizons.
