Steve Fotios, PhD, I am professor of lighting and visual perception in the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield (UK) where I lead research of lighting and its effects on human behaviour – our evaluations of the lit environment and our ability to see – currently with a focus on lighting for pedestrians. I enjoy working with PhD students, and in particular encouraging them to consider methods before results (http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/architecture/people/fotios_s). A long standing desire to help students in this way was realised after a chance meeting with Jens Christoffersen, and this lead to establishing the Academic Forum and LumeNet, annual workshops discussing daylight and lighting (in its broader sense) in alternate years (http://www.lumenet2012.group.shef.ac.uk/index.html).

These workshops enable PhD students to receive critical feedback from international experts on their proposed methods of research at an early stage in the PhD process.