Director

Orfeu M. Buxton, PhD (neuroscience, Northwestern 2000)
Director, Sleep Health & Society Program, BBH/HHD/PSU
Associate Professor, Department of Biobehavioral Health
Orfeu@PSU.edu

Penn State affiliations

• Neuroscience, SSRI (Steering Committee), Physiology IGDP, PRI, CSC [need links]

Other Affiliation(s)

• Adjunct Associate Professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
• Lecturer on Medicine, Division of Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School
• Associate Neuroscientist, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston MA
• Co-chair, Steering Committee of the Work, Family, and Health Network
• Program Committee, Work & Family Researchers Network https://workfamily.sas.upenn.edu/
• Director, Biomarker and Actigraphy Data Coordinating Center
• Member, Advisory Board, Center for Work, Health, and Well-being, Harvard T. H Chan School of Public Health
• Faculty member, Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies
• Editorial Board member, Sleep Health; Sleep

Brief Biography

Dr. Buxton’s research primarily focuses on 1) the causes of chronic sleep deficiency in the workplace, home, and society, and 2) the health consequences of chronic sleep deficiency, especially cardiometabolic outcomes, and the physiologic and social mechanisms by which these outcomes arise. Successful aging is a central focus of this work. Ongoing interdisciplinary human studies involve sleep loss, aging, and insomnia, as well as health disparities.

Dr. Buxton serves on the Internal Advisory Board for the Harvard School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-being. Dr. Buxton is a member of the Work, Family, and Health Network, co-chairs the Steering Committe, and leads the Biomarker and Actigraphy Data Coordinating Center (BADCC) for the Work, Family, and Health Study, among others.

After earning a B.S. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Pittsburgh and a stint as a small business owner, Dr. Buxton earned a doctoral degree in Neuroscience from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, working with Professors Eve Van Cauter and Fred Turek. He obtained post-doctoral training in sleep and endocrinology with Dr. Van Cauter at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Buxton co-founded the National Postdoctoral Association, a member-driven organization that provides a unique, national voice for postdoctoral scholars.