Dr. Shechter is an Assistant Professor of Medical Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. He received his Ph.D. while in the laboratory of Dr. Diane Boivin at McGill University. During this time, he trained in human chronobiology and developed expertise in the assessment of the sleep-wake cycle and circadian physiology. He completed a postdoctoral research fellowship under the mentorship of Dr. Marie-Pierre St-Onge at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at Columbia University. There he began to examine the relationship of sleep with food intake, physical activity, and metabolism. His current research at CBCH focuses on how sleep and circadian rhythm disturbance, as a result of pathophysiologic states and lifestyle/behaviors, affects cardiometabolic and psychological outcomes. He is also interested in the impact of chronotherapeutic interventions and the light environment on sleep and mood. By conducting varied and interdisciplinary research, including observational studies, laboratory-based mechanistic studies, and patient-oriented clinical interventions, Dr. Shechter’s work aims to clarify the bio-behavioral pathways by which sleep and circadian rhythms influence health and well-being.

Dr. Shechter is currently PI on an NHLBI-funded R01 examining the association of short sleep and sedentary behavior with 1-year risk for recurrent cardiovascular events and mortality following stroke (R01HL141494). He is also currently MPI on an NHLBI-funded R01 to examine how sleep/circadian disruption and work-related environmental factors are related to the development of burnout and elevated blood pressure in emergency department clinicians (the Identification of Modifiable PROgnosticators for burnout and cardioVascular risk in Emergency medicine [IMPROVE] study; R01HL146911).