Sooner or later? Organisation and function of circadian clocks

Martha Merrow studied Biology at Middlebury College in Vermont before working on her Ph.D. in Immunogenetics at the Tufts University Medical School in Boston. She started working on her current research interest, the biological clock, as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Dartmouth Medical School. Prof. Merrow then habilitated (a teaching degree) in Medical Psychology at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich before taking a tenure track position at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. She left Groningen seven years later as a full professor to assume a Teaching Chair in her former department in Munich, where she is currently engaged. Her research is focused on understanding molecular aspects of how the biological clock synchronises with environmental cues. Beyond her teaching and research, Prof. Merrow works on developing scientific networks for chronobiologists and for women in science (e.g., OnTime, Frauentisch).