Speaker Michael W. Young is an American geneticist best known for winning the 2017 Nobel prize in Medicine (shared with American geneticists Jeffrey C. Hall and Michael Rosbash). Dr. Young contributed to the discovery of molecular mechanism that regulate circadian rhythm, the 24-hour period of biological activity in humans and other organisms. Young’s elucidation of the relationships between genes and behaviour in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster offered new insight into recurring, daily physiological processes in humans, including metabolism and sleep.

In the 1990s, working independently and collaborating with Hall and Rosbash, Young helped elucidate the molecular mechanism by which period controls the circadian clock. He discovered a second key gene, timeless, RNA levels of which oscillate on a 24-hour cycle, and found that the timeless protein, TIM, could bind to PER, the protein produced by period, enabling PER to enter the cell nucleus to inhibit its own transcription (synthesis of RNA from DNA). Young’s later research included the investigation of molecular changes in circadian rhythm that underlie sleep disorders in humans.

In addition to the Nobel Prize, Young was recognized with numerous other awards during his career, including the Gruber Foundation Neuroscience Prize (2009), the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize (2011), and the Canada Gairdner International Award (2012), all shared with Hall and Rosbash. He was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences (2007).