James C. McPartland, Ph.D., is the Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center. He is a practicing licensed child psychologist and Director of the Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic. Dr. McPartland is Director of the Yale Center for Brain and Mind Health, Co-Director of Team Science at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation, Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Child Study Center, and the Principal Investigator of the Autism Biomarkers Consortium for Clinical Trials, a US-based effort to identify biomarkers to support intervention research in autism.
Dr. McPartland’s program of research investigates the brain bases of neurodevelopmental conditions to develop biologically-based tools to improve detection, treatment, and, ultimately, the quality of life for autistic people and their families. His research has been continuously supported since 2007 by both federal and private research grants and was named the top-funded international autism researcher over the past decade. His contributions to the field have been recognized by numerous awards, including the NARSAD Atherton Young Investigator Award, the International Society for Autism Research Young Investigator Award, the Patterson Trust Clinical Research Award, the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Klerman Prize, and the APA Sara S. Sparrow Early Career Research Award.
He has been named a Fellow by two divisions of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. Dr. McPartland has published six books and over 180 scholarly works on autism and related topics. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, the Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities, and the Encyclopedia of Autism and Related Disorders. Dr. McPartland is active in public scientific communication, with his clinical and research activities featured in media, such as the A&E series, The Employables, and news outlets, such as the New York Times.
He has served on the executive boards of the International Society for Autism Research and the APA Division of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities/Autism Spectrum Disorder and currently chairs the Scientific Advisory Board of the Autism Science Foundation.
