AASM Membership Sections Newsletter Issue #2
15
from Drexel University. She completed her pre-doctoral fellow-
ship under the direction of Dr. David Dinges at the University of
Pennsylvania, School of Medicine.
Francine James, PhD (Vice-Chair)
is starting her first year as Vice-Chair and her second year as
a member of the Sleep Deprivation section. Dr. James is an
Associate Scientist at the Institutes for Behavior Resources
Inc., an independent, non-profit research organization in
Baltimore, MD. Dr. James’ work within the Operational and
Fatigue Research Division focuses on behavioral and physi-
ological studies of human sleep and circadian rhythms in the
occupational context. Her study of fatigue risk factors in various
operational environments informs the development of policy
and best practice guidelines by groups including federal and
regional regulators. Dr. James earned her PhD in Neuroscience
fromMcGill University, where her published work was based
on studies of human sleep, circadian physiology and clock gene
expression, performed in time-isolation environments and
under conditions including shift work and jet-lag. Dr. James
brings her academic research experience to the development
of data-driven approaches to fatigue risk management in work
environments including the commercial motor vehicle industry,
aviation and commuter transit systems.
Mathias Basner, MD, PhD
is starting his first year as Member of the Sleep Deprivation Sec-
tion. Dr. Basner received his degree in Medicine and his PhD in
Research from the University of Bochum, Germany and a Master
of Science in Epidemiology from the University of Bielefeld,
Germany. Dr. Basner headed the Flight Physiology Division at
the Institute of Aerospace Medicine at the German Aerospace
Center (DLR) between 2008 and 2009. In January 2010, Dr.
Basner assumed the position of Assistant Professor of Sleep and
Chronobiology in Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania
Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Basner’s primary research
interests concern the effects of sleep loss on neurobehavioral and
cognitive functions, population studies on sleep time and waking
activities, and the effects of traffic noise on sleep and recupera-
tion. Dr. Basner conducted several large scale laboratory and
field studies on the effects of traffic noise on sleep at DLR. For
this research, he was awarded the German Aerospace Center re-
search award and the Science Award of the German Academy for
Aviation and Travel Medicine. Dr. Basner is Deputy Editor of the
Journal SLEEP and Secretary of the International Commission of
Biological Effects of Noise (ICBEN).
Abid Malik, MD
is starting his first year as a Member of the Sleep Deprivation
section. Dr. Malik is Medical Director of the Sleep Disorder
Center at South Seminole Hospital (part of Orlando Health) and
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, University of Central Florida,
College of Medicine. Dr. Malik is board certified in Psychiatry
(
ABPN), Psychosomatic Medicine (ABPN), Sleep Medicine
(
ABPN) and Addiction Medicine (ABAM). Dr. Malik received
his Medical Degree from Dow Medical College and completed
his Residency at Albany Medical College. Dr. Malik’s interest in-
cludes relationship of Sleep disturbance and psychiatric disorder
such as Depression and Anxiety.
Adrienne Tucker, PhD
is starting her first year as a Member of the Sleep Deprivation
Steering Committee. Dr. Tucker is a post-doctoral research fel-
low at the University of Amsterdam. She received her PhD from
Washington State University, and post-doctoral research training
from Columbia University and the University of Colorado. Her
research investigates how fatigue leads to performance errors. So
far, this work has revealed the counterintuitive finding that some
aspects of complex cognition are selectively preserved during
sleep loss while more basic sensory deficits appear to contribute
to the impairments observed in some executive functions. The
results of this work have been selected for oral presentations at
the APSS and European Sleep Research Society conferences and
were published in the Best of Sleep Medicine in 2011. Dr. Tucker
serves on the Editorial Board of the journal SLEEP and as an ad-
hoc reviewer for a dozen other scientific journals.
sleep restriction, with four hours for sleep. Thus, indi-
vidual differences assessed from total sleep deprivation
protocols may translate to real-world settings involv-
ing sleep restriction and have important impacts on
scheduling practices in 24/7 environments.
Another evolving area of interest is the occurrence
of sleep disturbances associated with psychiatric
disorders including depression and anxiety. In fact
sleep disturbance is one of the DSM IV criteria for
Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety
Disorder among other criteria. During the 2012 an-
nual sleep meeting in Boston, there was a great deal
of interest in sessions discussing relationship of sleep
and psychiatric disorders such as session O08: Epide-
miology of Psychiatric Disturbance and Sleep. Thus,
we as the sleep deprivation section are interested in
session(s) discussing relationship between sleep and
psychiatric disorders.
Research Highlights continued
Steering Committee Profiles continued