Shantha Rajaratnam

Shantha Rajaratnam is Professor of Sleep and Circadian Medicine and Academic Head of the School of Psychological Sciences at Monash University. He is Chair of the Sleep Health Foundation, Australia's leading advocate for healthy sleep. Shantha is also a Lecturer in Medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School (USA) and Associate Neuroscientist in the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital (USA).

He was awarded a PhD on the subject of chronobiology in 1998 and a Bachelor of Laws degree in 2000. From 2000 to 2002, he undertook post-doctoral training at the Centre for Chronobiology (University of Surrey, UK) and from 2004-2006, was a Visiting Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Sleep Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.

Shantha is an international expert in the understanding of how the internal biological clock regulates sleep, health, wellbeing and performance, and how disruption of the clock leads to sleep disorders and other physiological consequences (for example, in shift workers). His group is developing novel treatment approaches for sleep disorders that are caused by biological clock disruption. These include light and melatonin treatments. The group is also investigating the contribution of sleep disturbances and fatigue to mood disorders and impaired cognitive function in clinical populations.