Sarah L. Chellappa, MD, MPH, PhD, is an Alexander Von Humboldt Experienced Fellow at the Department of Nuclear Medicine, University of Cologne, Germany. Dr. Chellappa´s work has shown that sleep and circadian rhythms affect mood, cognition and brain activity in a variety of human populations, including healthy young and older adults, shift workers, patients with depression, patients with ocular diseases and patients with neurodegeneration. Her work combines multimodal neuroimaging approaches to assess how sleep and circadian rhythms affect brain activity that modulate mood and cognition. Her work also includes sleep/circadian interventions to help improve mood, health and well-being using targeted light exposure and, more recently targeted nutritional interventions (meal timing) to improve cardiometabolic and mental health in humans.


Dr. Chellappa has authored more than 50 papers in prestigious journals including Science, Science Advances, Nature Communications, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, JAMA Ophthalmology, among others, and has consistently acquired funding to support her research. Dr. Chellappa is an active supporter of Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity, and is engaged in the right of every worker to be provided with equal opportunities to flourish and succeed in an environment that guarantees their dignity and respect.