On 1 January 2022, Prof. Dr. Manuel Spitschan accepted the call of TUM to the new Rudolf Mößbauer Assistant Professorship for Chronobiology & Health in cooperation with the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen. After studying psychology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland (2009-2012) and completing his doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania in the USA (2012-2016), he was a postdoc in the field of "Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences" at Stanford University (USA) from 2016 to 2017. He then moved to the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford in England as a Research Follow, most recently working there as a University Research Lecturer since 2020.
Prof. Spitschan is a member of Technical Committee 1-98 of the International Commission on Illumination (CIE TC 1-98). He is also an elected member of the Daylight Academy.
Dear Prof. Spitschan, as of now you are working at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen on the one hand, and on the other hand you hold the new Rudolf Mößbauer Assistant Professorship of Chronobiology & Health at TUM. How should one imagine your work in this double function?
"I head a Max Planck research group here in Tübingen, which started work at the beginning of January. We are still in the start-up phase, and staff will be added from 1 April. My new position is a joint appointment by the Max Planck Society to this group and the TU Munich to the Tenure Track Assistant Professorship. This model with the cooperation of the two institutions has already existed several times in order to provide a long-term and attractive scientific perspective. However, this should not result in two island groups at two institutions, but in an integrated research group."
What will be your research focus at the Max Planck Institute and the Department of Sport and Health Sciences (SG)?
"My research is about the influence of light on human physiology and behaviour. On the one hand, these are reactions to light, such as our pupil dilating when it is dark and shrinking when it is light. We have a hormone balance that is also controlled by the change of light and dark. This can be investigated in several ways. In the research group in Tübingen, my group will conduct mechanistic studies, i.e. studies in the laboratory in which we control, for example, how high the light intensity or the retinal illumination is. These experiments are intended to answer questions that deal with biological differences in capacity. For example, what does light do to the human hormone balance and our sleep? In Munich we have significantly different goals, here we want to find answers to the questions of what the results mean for the 'real' world. How does light exposure affect people who are not in the laboratory? How can light exposure be optimized to support the circadian system and physiology? Here, of course, you can use completely different methods and do more field studies with people where you can apply different biomarkers. In addition, we are also pursuing a health psychology approach, where we are investigating how to give people a tool to optimally expose themselves to good lighting conditions. How can you control and optimise behaviour so that light exposure is also optimal, meaning no light in the evening and lots of light during the day?"
What was crucial in your decision to switch from the University of Oxford to this model?
"I am from Germany and I am happy to return to Germany. I completed my entire student and academic career abroad, with studies in Scotland, doctorate and postdoc in the USA as well as in England. In this respect, Germany was naturally an attractive location for me. What specifically interests me about the model is the possibility of building two bridges between the work in the lab and the application in the real world. Especially in a field where there is an information vacuum, this bridging is all the more important to understand what the biological capacity is on the one hand, but also the relevance in the 'real' world on the other. I see this reflected in the joint appointment. TUM also has excellent opportunities to bridge into other approaching fields. There are some colleagues at the Department with whom I see very good points of contact. What I also find very exciting in the long term, and which is also a recurring theme, is the area of circadian rhythms and how the internal clock affects various processes in our society. This topic cannot be left out of the life sciences, medicine or psychology. For example, there are studies that show that certain forms of cancer therapy depend on the time of day. The topic of the internal clock has many points of connection with professors in our own Department, but also in other Departments."
What does the call to the TU Munich mean to you?
"The call means a lot to me, as it is a very great honour and confirmation of the quality of my work so far. I am very grateful for that. I very much appreciate the opportunities that can be developed as a result. TUM is one of the leading universities in Europe and a great place to take this research forward."
What is your impression of the Department SG so far?
"I was able to gain a good impression even before the actual appointment through various conversations with future colleagues. I found them all to be very cooperative and open to discussion, which is of course very important. I noticed that you are surrounded by people who are friendly and interested, but who are also outstanding academically. I also got the feeling that there is a kind of Department spirit. With the move to Tübingen and the TUM still in progress, there have been rather few personal contacts so far, but I have the impression that it is very collegial and the Department is a nice place to do research."
Looking ahead to your work at the Department SG, what are you looking forward to the most?
"Actually, I am very much looking forward to teaching. Most of the teaching I have done so far has been in the field of psychology. So I am looking forward to the challenge of locating myself even more in the field of health sciences, using psychological or physiological approaches, and thereby perhaps giving a new impetus. It is nice to be at a Department where the approaches to both teaching and research are very diverse, as the topics of health and sport unite many disciplines. It's something completely new for me, as I've mainly been in psychology so far."
What topics will you focus on in teaching? What courses will your Professorship offer?
"I will offer a course called 'Health Science Research II' in the field of health sciences from the summer semester of 2022, which consists of a lecture and a seminar. Here, I am currently still working on the conception of exciting methods from the field of psychophysiology and neuroscience to capture human behaviour and psychology from a health perspective. Another impulse I would like to set is the question of how to work scientifically so that it is reproducible and open. The main topics of Open and Reproducible Science and Reproducibility are very important to me in my own research, which is why I would like to take the opportunity to integrate them into teaching as well. How do I design an experiment or a study and how do I document it so that others can replicate it? These are questions that you approach more pragmatically, but they're very important, especially when you're working in large studies with large data sets."
And one last question: Do you do any sport yourself? And if so, what kind?
"I am very passionate about weightlifting and specifically powerlifting. I only got into that in my early 30s. I never saw myself as someone who was particularly athletic or particularly good at a sport until I started weightlifting and realized that I enjoy it immensely. It's not only about physical performance, but also a lot about mental and psychological performance. The mental focus you have when lifting weights is something I usually only know from scientific work. So this sport creates a nice balance to the work at the desk."
Thank you for the interview!
Contact:
Prof. Dr. Manuel Spitschan
Rudolf Mößbauer Assistant Professorship of Chronobiology & Health
Georg-Brauchle-Ring 60/62
80992 München
e-mail: manuel.spitschan(at)tum.de
Text/Interview: Romy Schwaiger
Photo: private