Serge Daan
Serge Daan (11 June 1940 – 9 February 2018) was a Dutch scientist, known for his significant contributions to the field of Chronobiology.
[1] Serge Daan (Mook, 1940) was born in a wind mill, grew up in the Dutch countryside, and went to high school (Gymnasium β) in Deventer.
The Daan family was highly interested in biology and undertook enterprises in this field, such as investigating the ecology of reptiles in the Mediterranean area.
He was subsequently trained as a postdoc by the two founders of modern chronobiology, Jürgen Aschoff and Colin Pittendrigh.
This 4-year episode, at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Physiology in Andechs, Bavaria and Stanford University in California, and the lifelong collaboration and friendship with both were crucial for his professional career.
In 1975, Daan was appointed associate professor at the University of Groningen in the Animal Ecology group of R.H. Drent.
Serge Daan’s research focuses on the temporal organisation of behaviour in animals and humans.
In about 250 publications he contributed a number of key concepts and models that have improved understanding of the ‘circadian’ (circa 24-h) rhythms of rest and activity, the regulation of human sleep, and the annual timing of reproduction.
Working with Pittendrigh, Daan developed many of the theoretical foundations for understanding the dynamics of circadian oscillators.
[2] Many other studies have followed, shifting the focus from behavioural black box models to testable hypotheses about underlying molecular mechanisms.
[3] Serge Daan, together with Borbély and Beersma, developed a model which convincingly explained the observations.
Working with Drent, Daan showed that one strategy used to deal with seasonal changes is to adjust the number and even sex of offspring.
From 2001 to 2004 he was vice-dean for research at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Groningen, and together with dean D.A.
Wiersma was responsible for incisive changes such as the tenure track system and the Rosalind Franklin fellowships for women.
Serge Daan taught a wide array of courses on all levels of the curriculum of Biology (animal ecology, zoology, human ethology, chronobiology, animal behaviour, evolution), including the recent tutorial Honours College for highly talented students.
Serge Daan took the initiative to set up and coordinate the top-master program in Behavioural and Cognitive Neurosciences at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.
(a study in the Common vole, Microtus arvalis) 2001 M. Oklejewicz: The rate of living in tau mutant Syrian hamsters.
Baron von Engelhardt: Proximate control in avian sex allocation - a study in zebra finches.
2007 D. van der Veen: Neural substrate and the timing of behaviour in a multiple clock system.
2009 T. Limbourg: Parental care in relation to offspring sex and mate attractiveness in the Blue tit.
(cum laude) Honorary doctorate: 2009 Michael Menaker, University of Virginia A subspecies of lizard found on some Greek Aegean islands and Turkish Anatolia, Laudakia stellio daani, is named after S.
This difference was noted by Serge Daan during his investigations in the Mediterranean area, and reported in a paper in 1967 [citation needed].
Serge and Ruth are also well known for organising a yearly summer garden party for the people working in the lab.
Braunau 3: 255-290 1992 ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT Forschungspreis (Research Prize) (Germany) 2000 ROYAL SOCIETY of CANADA, elected Foreign Fellow 2002 Recipient of “Aschoff’s Rule”, meeting of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms, Amelia Island (Fa, USA).
2003 Appointed as Niko Tinbergen Distinguished Professor in Behavioural Biology 2005 Ridder in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw (Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion) 2006 INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR BIOLOGY (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science).
For Serge Daan, the fact that this prize introduced him to the royal family of Japan represents a special dimension.
