Raphael Heinzer MD, MPH

Following medical studies at the University of Lausanne, Prof. Raphaël Heinzer began researching sleep in 1996 at the Stanford Sleep Center in Palo Alto. He then trained in internal medicine and then in pneumology, in Friborg, HUG, and CHUV. After completing his thesis, he joined Harvard Medical School in Boston in 2003 for a two-year research internship in sleep medicine, completed by a "Master of public health" obtained in 2005.

Back in Switzerland, he set up in 2006 the Center for Investigation and Research on Sleep (CIRS) with Prof. Mr. Tafti in the framework of a partnership between the UNIL and the CHUV. He is now the head doctor of this unit in the Department of Medicine, which employs around 20 people, performs more than 1,000 sleep examinations a year and functions as a reference center for rare sleep diseases.

Prof. research Heinzer is interested in the physiology and epidemiology of various sleep disorders (apnea, insomnia, hypersomnia, parasomnia, etc.). They are based on data from the HypnoLaus cohort, today the largest population cohort in the field. He also devotes work to the study of sleep in extreme conditions: high altitude, solo navigation or long flights, as in the case of Solar Impulse.