Advisory Board

Dr. Kwadwo Owusu Akuffo is a Senior Lecturer and Former Head of the Department of Optometry and Visual Science at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana. Dr Akuffo's research interests include ocular nutrition, ophthalmic epidemiology, low vision, and environmental vision. With a PhD in Vision Science from Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland and a Doctor of Optometry (OD) degree from KNUST, his work has earned him numerous awards, including the George Britton Early Investigator of the Year Award at the Brain and Ocular Nutrition Conference. He has co-led multiple international research projects, such as the HM KNUST Low Vision Project in Ghana, funded by the Else Kröner-Fresenius Foundation; Technical University of Munich (TUM) Global Incentive Fund project entitled "Environmental light exposure, ocular health and sleep: Collaborative German Ghanaian pilot and feasibility study"; and the Daylight Academy project entitled "Toward a globally representative dataset of personal daylight exposure: capacity building and microgrant initiative". In addition to his academic and research work, Dr. Akuffo is very passionate about mentorship and the career development of young people. Throughout his mentorship, students have won several prestigious international awards. Dr. Akuffo currently serves as a Board Member of the African STEM Network and Global Light Commons Advisory Board.

I am a neuroscientist and Assistant Professor at the Izmir Institute of Technology, where I lead the Translational Chronobiology Lab. I completed my PhD and postdoctoral training at the University of Manchester within the Centre for Biological Timing. My research focuses on how light shapes human physiology and behaviour in real-world settings. During my time in Manchester, I contributed to the development of one of the earliest wearable melanopic light monitors, enabling more accurate measurement of biologically relevant light exposure outside the lab. I investigate the non-visual effects of light on sleep, alertness, and cognition, alongside individual differences in light sensitivity and cultural influences on sleep and lighting behaviour. Because these effects are often subtle and context-dependent, my work relies on large, real-world datasets, making open-source data and collaboration essential to improving measurement, increasing statistical power, and advancing our understanding of how light influences human health.

Dr Vineetha Kalavally is currently an Associate Professor and Deputy Head at the Department of Electrical and Robotics Engineering at the School of Engineering, Monash University Malaysia. She is also the director of the Intelligent Lighting Lab and leads a research group focused on Solid State Lighting. Her team has developed a novel, highly accurate wearable light dosimeter which captures the spectral power density data close to eye level in the visible wavelength range 380-780 nm and provides several metrics relating light exposure and the human circadian rhythm. Vineetha is recognised internationally in the field of human centric lighting, particularly in the field of light metrology using wearable dosimeters and spectral engineering for non-visual benefits. She has successfully led many collaborative research projects with industries and international partners such as OSRAM, Harvard University, University of Chula Longkorn and University of Basel in Switzerland.

Lisa A. Ostrin, OD, PhD, is a Professor at the University of Houston College of Optometry. She received a combined OD/PhD degree from the University of Houston, followed by postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University and the University of California, Berkeley. She returned to the University of Houston to establish an independent research program focused on the mechanisms of ocular growth and myopia development, conducting translational studies in both human participants and animal models. Dr. Ostrin's research emphasizes the role of environmental factors and visual cues in myopia onset and progression, as well as the development and evaluation of novel myopia control strategies. Her work integrates advanced ocular imaging, wearable sensor technologies, and experimental models to better understand and modify risk for myopia. Dr. Ostrin teaches gross and ocular anatomy and is the author of Anatomy of the Human Eye: A Coloring Atlas. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Optometry and a Gold Fellow of ARVO. Her honors include the American Optometric Foundation Ezell Fellowship and the Women in Optometry Theia Education Award.

Dr. Patterson Gentile is a physician scientist specializing in child neurology and headache medicine at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. She has served as the Director of the Headache Fellowship and Neurology Lead for the Minds Matter Concussion Program. She completed her MD and PhD in vision neuroscience at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her clinical and scientific work focus on improving the care of youth with primary and secondary headache disorders. Her research leverages wearable biosensors, including light dosimeters, as a tool to elucidate the impacts of light sensitivity in migraine and post-traumatic headache, and improve daily habits including daily light exposure, sleep, and physical activity, to promote health and improve quality of life in youth with chronic pain. Open-source light data is important to her work because having a large representative repository of everyday light exposure data will help improve our understanding of the everyday impact of light sensitivity in neurological and ophthalmologic conditions. In her free time, she enjoys spending time outdoors hiking and cross-country skiing with her family.

Andrea Sancho-Salas is an associate professor and researcher in the School of Architecture at the University of Costa Rica. With a background in tropical architecture, lighting design, and environmental analysis, her work explores how light interacts with architectural space and shapes both visual experience and non-visual outcomes related to human health, comfort, and behaviour. Her perspective is grounded in Latin American contexts and informed by research, teaching, and practice. She is glad to contribute to a collective and inclusive space for exchange across disciplines and communities. Architecture shapes our daily exposure to light and our health. Even in places with abundant daylight, such as the tropics, design decisions, culture, and behavior still determine how people actually experience it. Open and accessible data are essential to expand education and social impact while broadening true global and diverse representation.

Juliëtte van Duijnhoven is an assistant professor within the Building Lighting group embedded in the unit Building Physics and Services of the department of the Built Environment (Eindhoven University of Technology). She brings in expertise on measuring and evaluating lighting conditions in the built environment. She works on 1) developing and advancing methods to gather personal lighting conditions of individuals to further progress the insights on the effects of light on human health, performance, and wellbeing, 2) investigating factors that affect personal light exposure patterns, and 3) supporting end users to get exposed to the right light at the right time (through healthy buildings and/or healthy light exposure behavior). Her main aim is to create sustainable lighting solutions in the built environment incorporating the individual differences in light exposure patterns. Light exposure has been at the core of her research for more than a decade. Because people differ in their daily routines, behaviors, and the environments they spend time in, their light exposure varies substantially. To advance our understanding of how light affects humans, high-quality data on personal light exposure is essential. Once personal light exposure datasets become openly available, we can learn from them collectively in terms of light effects on humans, but we can also explore ways to improve data quality and collection methods (e.g., dosimetry and simulations).