Alexander Borbély

Alexander A. Borbély (born 25 March 1939) is a Hungarian-born Swiss pharmacologist and sleep researcher. He is professor emeritus of pharmacology at the University of Zurich and is best known for developing the two-process model of sleep regulation, a framework that has had a major influence on modern sleep science and chronobiology.[1][2]

Early life and education

Borbély was born in Budapest, Hungary. He graduated from the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich in 1963.[3]

Borbély spent two years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Research Laboratory of Electronics of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[4]

Academic career

Borbély joined the Institute of Pharmacology at the University of Zurich, where he established a research group devoted to sleep research and neuropharmacology. He qualified as a Privatdozent at the university's medical faculty in 1971, was appointed associate professor in 1983, and became full professor of pharmacology in 1992.[5]

Borbély served as Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Zurich from 1998 to 2000 and as Vice-President for Research from 2000 to 2006.[6]

After his retirement in 2006, he chaired the steering committee of the Swiss National Research Programme "Non-Ionising Radiation – Health and Environment" until 2010.[7] Between 2012 and 2014 he participated as a delegate of the University of Zurich in the initiative Universitäre Medizin Zürich, which focused on the integration of academic medicine in the University hospitals.[8]

Research

Borbély's research has focused on the regulation of sleep and wakefulness. His work combined animal experimentation, human sleep studies, quantitative electroencephalography, signal analysis, and mathematical modelling.[3]

He is best known for proposing the two-process model of sleep regulation in 1982. The model describes sleep timing and sleep intensity as the interaction of two processes: a homeostatic sleep drive (Process S), which increases during wakefulness and dissipates during sleep, and a circadian process (Process C), which is governed by the biological clock.[9]

Borbély and collaborators subsequently expanded the model through studies of electroencephalographic slow-wave activity, sleep homeostasis, circadian rhythms, sleep deprivation, hypnotic drugs, and mathematical simulations of sleep-wake regulation. His work contributed to the understanding of slow-wave sleep as a marker of sleep pressure and to the quantitative analysis of sleep electroencephalograms in humans and animals.[10]

Borbély authored more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific publications and several books on sleep and sleep regulation. He served as president of the European Sleep Research Society (1988-1992) and was founding president of the Swiss Society for Sleep Research, Sleep Medicine and Chronobiology (1991). [11]

Honours and awards

  • Anna-Monika Prize (1985)
  • Pisa Sleep Award (1998)
  • Distinguished Scientist Award, World Federation of Sleep Research and Sleep Medicine Societies (1999)
  • Distinguished Scientist Award, Sleep Research Society (2003)
  • Peter C. Farrell Prize for Sleep Medicine, Harvard Medical School (2008)
  • Sleep Science Award, European Sleep Research Society (2014)
  • Bernese Sleep Award (2023)

He also received honorary doctorates from University of Szeged (1998) and Medical University of Warsaw (1999).

Selected works

  • Borbély AA (1982). "A two process model of sleep." Human Neurobiology 1(3):195–204.
  • Daan S, Beersma DGM, Borbély AA (1984). "Timing of human sleep: recovery process gated by a circadian pacemaker." American Journal of Physiology 246:R161–R183.
  • Borbély AA, Tobler I (1989). "Endogenous sleep promoting substances and sleep regulation." Physiological Reviews 69(2):605–670.
  • Borbély AA, Achermann P (1999). "Sleep homeostasis and models of sleep regulation." Journal of Biological Rhythms 14(6):557–568.
  • Borbély AA, Daan S, Wirz-Justice A, Deboer T (2016). "The two-process model of sleep regulation: a reappraisal." Journal of Sleep Research 25(2):131–143.
  • Borbély A (2022). "The two-process model of sleep regulation: Beginnings and outlook." Journal of Sleep Research 31.
  • Borbély A, Tobler I (2024). "The two process model: Origin of its concepts and their implications." Clinical and Translational Neuroscience 8.

Books

  • Pharmacological Modification of Evoked Brain Potentials (1973)
  • Das Geheimnis des Schlafs (1984; English translation: Secrets of Sleep, 1986; translation into 8 other languages)
  • Schlaf (2004)
  • Mehr als Schlaf: Erinnerungen und Erkundungen eines Schlafforschers (2019)

References

  1. ↑ Borbély, A. A. (1982). "A two process model of sleep regulation". Human Neurobiology. 1 (3): 195–204. ISSN 0721-9075. PMID 7185792.
  2. ↑ Borbély, Alexander A.; Daan, Serge; Wirz-Justice, Anna; Deboer, Tom (2016). "The two-process model of sleep regulation: a reappraisal". Journal of Sleep Research. 25 (2): 131–143. doi:10.1111/jsr.12371. ISSN 1365-2869. PMID 26762182.
  3. 1 2 "Alexander Borbély – Brief biography" (PDF). med.uzh.ch.
  4. ↑ "2008 Prize Recipient: Alexander A. Borbély, MD | Sleep Medicine". sleep.hms.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  5. ↑ MD, Dr Ravi Kumar (2025-10-22). "The Two-Process Model: How Sleep Drive and Circadian Rhythms Control Sleep". The Dr Kumar Discovery. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  6. ↑ "A Tribute to Alexander Borbély – 25 Years of the Two-Process Model | SRBR: Society for Research on Biological Rhythms". srbr.org. Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  7. ↑ Leybold-Johnson, Isobel Leybold-Johnson, Isobel (2011-05-12). "Phone radiation "affects biological processes"". SWI swissinfo.ch. Retrieved 2026-06-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. ↑ "NRP 57 "Non-Ionising Radiation - Health and Environment"". Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) (in German). Retrieved 2026-06-25.
  9. ↑ Borbély, Alexander (August 2022). "The two‐process model of sleep regulation: Beginnings and outlook †". Journal of Sleep Research. 31 (4). doi:10.1111/jsr.13598. PMC 9540767.
  10. ↑ Brachhold, Kerstin (28 December 2017). "Asleep or Awake? Deciphering the Molecular Mechanisms of Sleep Regulation". Advanced Science News.
  11. ↑ "Alexander Borbély: «Der Schlaf ist und bleibt ein Geheimnis»". Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen (SRF) (in German).
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