Zander Wedderburn obituary

My mentor, the psychologist Zander Wedderburn, who has died aged 81, was an international authority on shiftwork who helped to overturn the conventional wisdom that workers should rotate shifts on a weekly basis. Instead he found that rapidly rotating shifts - say, two early, two late, two nights and three days off - were more acceptable because of the social flexibility they offer.

Zander was born Alexander Wedderburn in Edinburgh. His father, Innes, was auditor to the Court of Session, and his mother, also Innes (nee Jeans), was a housewife. After being the top pupil at Edinburgh Academy, Zander studied for an MA in psychology, philosophy and classics at Exeter College, Oxford in 1959. He gained a PhD from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, after much of his research on night-work had already been published.