Cambridge Neuroscience in association with the British Neuroscience Association was delighted to welcome Professor Russell Foster from the University of Oxford to deliver the public neuroscience lecture at the annual Cambridge Neuroscience Seminar, which was held on March 20th at the Babbage Lecture Theatre in Cambridge. Russell Foster is Professor of Circadian Neuroscience and Head of the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford. Russell's research interests span the neurosciences but are currently focused upon two broad themes. The first relates to how environmental light is detected and processed by vertebrate photoreceptors. The second line of research relates to how circadian rhythms and sleep are generated and their disruption in mental illness and neurodegenerative disease.