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In
addition to his in-depth research into the history of
DST, Dr. Prerau was a key contributor to the largest technical
study ever performed on the effects of DST. He has coauthored
three major U.S. Government reports to Congress on the
effects of daylight saving time.
Dr. Prerau acted as a consultant to the U.S. Congress
on the recent law extending daylight saving time, and
also has been a consultant on DST to the United Kingdom
Parliament. He holds a Ph.D. from M.I.T.
As
an expert on daylight saving time, Dr. Prerau has appeared
on The NBC Nightly News, NBC's Today
Show, ABC's Good Morning America, CNN
NewsNight, CNN Headline News, CNN International Channel's Prism (Worldwide), PBS's The
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNBC's Morning Call,
Fox Business Network's Money for Breakfast, Bloomberg
TV's Bloomberg on the Economy, MSNBC's Countdown,
NECN's Wired, NPR's All Things Considered,
Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, Weekend America,
Talk of the Nation, and Bryant Park Project,
Voice of America, BBC TV One's BBC Breakfast,
BBC Radio Four's You and Yours, BBC Radio Five's
Radio Five Live, Canada's CBC-TV Your Call,
CBC Radio across Canada, Euranet Radio throughout
the European Union, Australian Broadcasting's NightLife
and Life Matters, Radio New Zealand's Morning
Report, and over one hundred other radio and television
programs in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom,
Ireland, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, South
Africa, and elsewhere.
Dr.
Prerau has written Op-Ed pieces on daylight saving time
for newspapers including the New York Times,
and he has written articles on DST for magazines such
as Discover and BBC's Who Do You Think You
Are Magazine. He has been interviewed by newspapers
and magazines in the United
States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia,
Brazil, Japan, and elsewhere, including USA Today,
Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Washington
Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune,
Congressional
Quarterly, the
Associated Press, Toronto Star,
the UK's Financial Times, Japan's
Yomiuri Shimbun, and over one hundred others. In addition, he has written
online articles for websites such as WebExhibits.com, and he has been interviewed for a number of
online publicatins and websites,
including National Geographic News, ABCNews.com, CNBC.com,
Wall Street Journal Online, NPR.org, Marketwatch.com, thedaily.com, Slate Magazine,
Wired.com, and many others.
He
has given numerous talks about daylight saving time, including
an invited lecture at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,
England.
Dr.
Prerau first became involved with daylight saving time
when he worked as a researcher for the U.S. Department
of Transportation. There, he was a major contributor to
what was probably the most extensive analysis of daylight
saving time ever performed. This study examined the effect
of daylight saving time on energy usage, motor vehicle
accidents, crime, and many other areas.
While
immersed in the detailed analysis of daylight saving time,
he became intrigued by the subject. No one seemed to know
much about the history of DST, and he determined to find
out more about it. As he delved deeper into the story
of daylight saving time, he found that DST had caused
a great deal of passion and contention in the political
and scientific worlds for many years. And in addition,
he discovered a large number of remarkable DST incidents
and fascinating anecdotes.
His
book, Seize the Daylight, is the result of Dr.
Prerau's many years of research—gathering information
relating to daylight saving time from numerous sources,
including newspaper articles, government records, legal
documents, personal histories, and even cartoons, songs,
and poetry—yielding an enjoyable and exciting book
that presents an eye-opening look into all the many reasons
why we spring ahead and fall back each
year.
When the U. S. Congress was considering an extension
of the daylight saving time period as part of the Energy
Policy Act, Dr. Prerau acted as a consultant to the U.S.
Congressmen who sponsored the DST measure. The law, including
the DST extension, passed, and the DST change
took effect in 2007. Most of the U. S. Representatives
and Senators who hammered out the final version of the
DST provision of the law had copies of Seize the Daylight
with them.
Dr. Prerau also has conferred with several members of
the United Kingdom's House of Commons and House of Lords
to advise them concerning possible bills in Parliament
to extend British Summer Time. When
a Summer Time extension was considered in Parliamentary
debate,
Dr. Prerau and his work were cited several
times.
Beyond his long association with and deep interest in
daylight saving time, Dr. Prerau is a senior computer
scientist and knowledge engineer, specializing in artificial
intelligence. He is the author of two books and numerous technical
papers on artificial intelligence. He lives in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
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