Fred R. Volkmar
Center Director
Goodwin Endowed Chair Special Education
203-392-5949
volkmarf1@southernct.edu
Fred R. Volkmar, M.D. is the Goodwin Endowed chair of Special Education (part-time) at Southern and also (part-time) the Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology at the Yale University Child Study Center. He has served as Director (chair) of the Child Study Center as well as Chief of Child Psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT. A graduate of the University of Illinois where he received an undergraduate degree in psychology in 1972 and of Stanford University where he received his MD and a master’s degree in psychology in 1976. Dr. Volkmar was the primary author of the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-IV autism and pervasive developmental disorders section. He is the author of several hundred scientific papers and chapters as well as many books including Asperger’s Syndrome (Guilford Press), Health Care for Children on the Autism Spectrum (Woodbine Publishing), the Handbook of Autism (Wiley Publishing) and the 3rd edition of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders (Cambridge University Press) published this year. He has served for a number of years as the Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and the Encyclopedia of Autism. He has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities, the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, and the American Journal of Psychiatry and now serves as Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disabilities. He has served as co-chairperson of the autism/intellectual disabilities committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In addition to having directed the internationally known autism clinic, he also served as director of autism research at Yale before becoming chairperson of the Department. Dr. Volkmar has been the principal investigator of three program project grants including a CPEA (Collaborative Program of Excellent in Autism) grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and a STAART (Studies to Advance Autism Research and Treatment) Autism Center Grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. He is the author of several hundred publications.