William J. Schwartz

William Joseph Schwartz (born March 28, 1950) is an American neurologist and scientist who serves as Professor and Associate Chair for Research and Education in the neurology department at the University of Texas Dell Medical School. His work on the neurobiology of circadian timekeeping has focused on the mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus. Schwartz demonstrated that the suprachiasmatic nucleus is rhythmic in vivo using a 2-deoxyglucose radioactive marker for functional brain imaging. As of 2014, he is editor of the Journal of Biological Rhythms.

Early life and education Schwartz was born on March 28, 1950, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1959, he moved to southern California with his family. He began his undergraduate education at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and, in 1971, finished his Bachelor of Science degree in biological sciences at the University of California, Irvine. He completed his M.D. in 1974 and a medical internship from 1974 to 1975 both at the University of California, San Francisco. From 1975–1978, Schwartz did a research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health.

As of 2017, Schwartz is the Associate Chair of Research and Education Neurology at the Dell Medical School. from 2014–present, and was previously elected as the Chair of the Gordon Research Conference on Chronobiology (1993) and President of the Society for Research on Biological Rhythms (2004–2006).

Research and publications Discovery of suprachiasmatic nucleus as an endogenous clock In 1977, Schwartz, along with Harold Gainer, Ph.D, found that the glucose consumption in the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus is a function of time of day and environmental lighting conditions.

Schwartz has also researched the effect of social forces on circadian rhythms. His research, conducted with Matthew J. Paul ad Premananda Indic suggests that cohabitation affects the onset of rhythmicity in hamsters, and that changing the speed of the circadian clock is one mechanism by which social factors could alter daily rhythms. In a 2013 paper co-authored with Guy Bloch, Erik D. Herzog and Joel D. Levine, Schwartz shows that social cues may be critical to the adaptive function of circadian rhythms, and can affect them from colony, to organismal, to cellular levels.

As of 2017, Schwartz is not running a research lab as he is helping with education at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin.

Personal life

As of 2017, Schwartz resides in Austin with his wife, Randi Eisner. The couple have two children.

Selected publications Schwartz WJ, Gainer H. "Suprachiasmatic nucleus: use of 14C-labeled deoxyglucose uptake as a functional marker." Science. 1977; 197: 1089–1091. Schwartz WJ, Smith CB, Davidsen L, Savaki H, Sokoloff L, Mata M, Fink DJ, Gainer H. Metabolic mapping of functional activity in the hypothalamo-neurohypophyseal system of the rat. Science. 1979; 205: 723–725. Reppert SM, Schwartz WJ. Maternal coordination of the fetal biological clock in utero. Science. 1983; 220: 969–971. Schwartz WJ, Gross RA, Morton MT. The suprachiasmatic nuclei contain a tetrodotoxin-resistant circadian pacemaker. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1987; 84: 1694–1698. Schwartz WJ, Zimmerman P. Circadian timekeeping in BALB/c and C57BL/6 inbred mouse strains. J Neurosci. 1990; 10: 3685–3694. Aronin N, Sagar SM, Sharp FR, Schwartz WJ. Light regulates expression of a Fos-related protein in rat suprachiasmatic nuclei. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1990; 87: 5959–5962. Takeuchi J, Shannon W, Aronin N, Schwartz WJ. Compositional changes of AP-1 DNA-binding proteins are regulated by light in a mammalian circadian clock. Neuron. 1993; 11: 825–836. Sumová A, Trávnícková Z, Peters R, Schwartz WJ, Illnerová H. The rat suprachiasmatic nucleus is a clock for all seasons. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1995; 92: 7754–7758. de la Iglesia HO, Meyer J, Carpino A Jr, Schwartz WJ. Antiphase oscillation of the left and right suprachiasmatic nuclei. Science. 2000; 290: 799–801. Jagota A, de la Iglesia HO, Schwartz WJ. Morning and evening circadian oscillations revealed in the suprachiasmatic nucleus in vitro. Nature Neuroscience. 2000; 3: 372–376. de la Iglesia HO, Cambras T, Schwartz WJ, Díez-Noguera A. Forced desynchronization of dual circadian oscillators within the rat suprachiasmatic nucleus. Current Biology. 2004; 14: 796–800.

Fellowships and chairs 1987: Elected Member of the American Neurological Association 2005: Boerhaave Visiting Professor, Leiden University Medical Centre, Netherlands 2008: Baerends Visiting Chair, University of Groningen, Netherlands 2012: Hood Fellow, University of Auckland, New Zealand 2014: Visiting Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies, LMU Munich, Germany 2015: Visiting Fellow, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Kyoto University, Japan 2016: Nirit and Michael Shaoul Fellow, Tel Aviv University, Israel 2016: Clark Way Harrison Visiting Professor, Washington University in St. Louis, USA