Circadian ZircLight Technology Lives

Circadian ZircLight, a pioneer in the long-evolving field of circadian lighting, might cease to exist as a corporate entity and brand following its recent acquisition by a California firm, although its technology looks set to carry on and its ardent CEO will remain heavily involved.

Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, who had run the Stoneham, MA–based company since founding it in 2011 as a spinoff of his consulting firm Circadian, will now serve as chief medical advisor for the acquiring company, Korrus, as LEDs Magazine reported earlier this month.

At the time of the announcement, it was not clear whether Los Angeles–based Korrus intended to operate Circadian as a company. The novel job title that it gave Moore-Ede hinted that he would no longer be Circadian CEO. Korrus also did not announce a new head to the operations, an omission that suggested it might break up the Circadian corporate structure.

LEDs subsequently asked both Korrus public relations and Moore-Ede via email to clarify whether Circadian would stay intact.

“You can think of Korrus as a software-defined technology platform that enables a vast ecosystem of products, each capable of dynamically delivering the right light at the right time, for any number of use cases,” Moore-Ede replied.

It does not take an advanced degree to realize that the word “yes” is missing from Moore-Ede’s response.

While the future does not necessarily look bright for Circadian ZircLight Inc. per se, there is a hopeful future for the products and processes that Moore-Ede developed. A former Harvard medical school professor, Moore-Ede developed luminaires and controls at Circadian ZircLight that tune the spectral content of lighting to conform to the circadian needs of humans, and thus foster health.

The Circadian portfolio that is now part of Korrus includes a violet LED emitter that replaces blue and thus avoids any harmful blue effects. Moore-Ede did not reveal the source of the chips, but said it does not come from Soraa.