John C. DeFries (born November 26, 1934) is one of the world's leading behavior geneticists. His achievements include being President of the Behavior Genetics Association (1982–1983) and cofounder of the journal '' Behavior Genetics'', as well as its co-editor (1970–1978). His awards include The Dobzhansky Award for Outstanding Research in Behavior Genetics ( Behavior Genetics Association, 1992), Consulting Editor of the ''

Journal of Learning Disabilities ''Journal of Learning Disabilities'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers the field of special education. The editor-in-chief is Stephanie Al Otaiba (Southern Methodist University). It was established in 1968 and is currently published b ...

'' (1987–2002), Fellowships in the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities,

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

, and the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

, Section J (Psychology). His contributions include major twin and adoption studies of

cognitive abilities Cognitive skills, also called cognitive functions, cognitive abilities or cognitive capacities, are brain-based skills which are needed in acquisition of knowledge, manipulation of information and reasoning. They have more to do with the mechanisms ...

, genetics of learning disabilities, and, when molecular tools became available, pioneering the use of DNA markers to locate genes that influence behavioral characters. At the

Institute for Behavioral Genetics The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

at the University of Colorado Boulder Dr. DeFries established the world's first large twin study of dyslexia at the Institute for Behavior Genetics in Boulder, and supervised over 17 PhD students. Among his works are a standard text on behavior genetics and original work on behavior-genetic methodology, some of it in collaboration with David Fulker. DeFries' articles have been cited over 29,000 times and he has an h-index of 87.

Selected books

*''Behavioral Genetics in the Postgenomic Era'', by Robert Plomin, John C. DeFries, Ian W. Craig, and Peter McGuffin *''Behavioral Genetics'' by Robert Plomin, John C. DeFries,

Gerald E. McClearn Gerald "Jerry" McClearn (July 28, 1927 – January 5, 2017) was an American behavior geneticist and professor emeritus of health and human development and biobehavioral health at the Pennsylvania State University. Education McClearn received his ...

and Peter McGuffin.

References

External links

DeFries' homepage
* 1934 births Living people American geneticists Behavior geneticists Academic journal editors University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni University of Colorado Boulder faculty Fellows of the Association for Psychological Science Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science {{geneticist-stub