Prof Plomin 'without peer in history of American behavioural genetics'

Professor Robert Plomin received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) at an awards ceremony in Washington DC last month.

The APA award is one of the highest honours for scientific achievement by psychologists and recognises senior scientists for distinguished theoretical or empirical contributions to basic research in psychology. This award was first created in 1956 and is typically given to three scientists (or pairs of collaborating scientists) each year.

APA Citation: For leading the transformation of behaviour genetics from an isolated and sometimes vilified scientific outpost to a fully integrated mainstay of scientific psychology. Professor Plomin’s work has spanned the most important phenotypes that have concerned behavioural geneticists — intelligence, personality, mental health and illness, and family dynamics. He has contributed to the classical methodologies in the study of twins and adoptees and to the modern frontiers of molecular genetics. He has made contributions to theoretical problems of nature and nurture and established empirical databases that will contribute for decades. He has been a leader of the Behaviour Genetics Association and a defender of behaviour genetics in the public domain. He is without peer in the history of American behavioural genetics.

Further information about Professor Plomin’s background and research appeared in the November issue of the American Psychologist, a journal of the American Psychological Association.