The Society of Light and Lighting (SLL) Trotter Paterson Lecture 2026 was delivered by Professor Glen Jeffery on the topic of The Importance of the Unseen.
Solar light plays a powerful role in regulating metabolism across the body. However, much of this is outside the human visual range and largely unappreciated. Moving into the built environment with LED lighting isolates us from key longer wavelengths and leaves us metabolically challenged. This may be reflected in the gradual increase in metabolically related diseases, particularly in ageing. Listen as Glen delves into the wonders of solar light and its role in regulating metabolism across the body.
Professor Glen Jeffery is Professor of Neuroscience, Institute of Ophthalmology, University College London, undertook his first degree in Experimental Psychology at Sussex University. He completed his doctorate at Oxford University in Neuroscience and then moved on to postdocs at UCL, University of Chicago and back at Oxford before taking up a faculty position at the Institute of Ophthalmology UCL.
His background career is in vision both in terms of the retina and the visual brain. Over the last 10 years he has become interested in the general impact of light both in its visual forms and in terms of wavelengths we do not see but which influence out bodies and their metabolism. This extends from natural light through to the light that we have in the built environment where we spend over 90% of our lives. Hence his research has platforms both in ophthalmology and also with architects and lighting designers.
In recent years, speakers and topics have included the following:
- Paule Constable - The Art of Telling Stories with Light
- Peter Boyce, Ph.D CEng, MCIBSE, Hon. FSLL, Hon. FIESNA, Professor Emeritus at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - Lighting in Flux
- Sir Colin Blakemore, FRS, FMedSci, FRSB, FBPhS, Professor of Neuroscience and Philosophy at the University of London - Vision Impossible
- Mark Rae Ph.D, Professor of Architecture and Cognitive Sciences at the Lighting Research Centre (LRC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute - What Ever Happened to Visual Performance?
- John Barbur Ph.D, Professor of Optics and Visual Science and Director of the Applied Vision Research Centre at City University London - Mesopic Vision
- Tommy Govén, Senior Designer and Advisor in Light and Lighting, Tommy Govén Consultancy - New Trends in Lighting
- Peter Boyce Ph.D, Ph.D CEng, MCIBSE, Hon. FSLL, Hon. FIESNA - Education, Motivation and Legislation: Three Keys to the Future of Lighting
- Bernie Davis, Television Lighting Director
- Dr Robert William Gainer Hunt O.B.E
- Bryson Gore Ph.D