Fred R. Volkmar

Fred Robert Volkmar (born 1950 in Illinois) From 2006 to 2014, he was the director of the Yale Child Study Center and the head of child psychiatry at Yale New Haven Hospital. Prior to these appointments, he was the director of the Autism Program at the Yale Child Study Center since 1983.

Personal life and education Volkmar was raised in Sorento, Illinois. He obtained a B.S. in psychology from the University of Illinois in 1972, where he worked with William Greenough on brain development. and earned him the Psi Chi national prize for research. He became an assistant professor at Yale in 1982, He held the Irving B. Harris chair in 1987 and 1988, being appointed permanently in 2003. He was part of the work group on neurodevelopmental disorders for the DSM-5 (2013) but resigned and, as of 2023, still believes the DSM-5 criteria are too strict, according to The Guardian. As of 2023, Volkmar is the editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders since publication of its first edition in 2013. He was an editor for the Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders, third, and fourth edition.

Recognition and awards Volkmar received the Blanche F. Ittleson Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 1997 and, in 2007, the George Tarjan Award for Research in Developmental Disabilities from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.