Irving I. Gottesman, Ph.D., Bernstein Professor in Adult Psychiatry in the University of Minnesota Medical School and senior fellow in the department of psychology, has been awarded the 2007 American Psychological Foundation (APF) Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology. The award was presented to Gottesman on August 18, 2007 at the 115th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.
Gottesman was honored for his "substantial contributions to the studies of schizophrenia, criminal behavior, and personality" and for his "action in bringing together psychology, psychiatry, and genetics in innovative ways" that have shaped and influenced the future of scientific research. Gottesman's work on behavioral genetics made terms such as reaction range, endophenotype, and epigenetic puzzle commonplace in modern neuroscience research. His books on genetic aspects of schizophrenia have been translated into Japanese and German, and he is chair of the National Twin Register for the Institute of Medicine.
Gottesman is a 1960 graduate of the Clinical Psychology Training Program at the University of Minnesota and was a Guggenheim Fellow at the University of Copenhagen and a MacArthur Foundation Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, CA. He has served on the faculties of Harvard University, University of North Carolina, and the Washington University School of Medicine. He returned to Minnesota after retiring from the University of Virginia where he was Sherrell J. Aston Professor of Psychology and professor of Clinical Pediatrics.
The Gold Medal Award for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology recognizes a distinguished career and enduring contribution to advancing psychological science. Previous University of Minnesota award recipients include B.F. Skinner, K.E. Clark, G. Lindzey, Norman Garmezy, and P.E. Meehl. The APF is a nonprofit, philanthropic organization that advances the science and practice of psychology as a means of understanding behavior and promoting health, education, and human welfare.
Gottesman has designated the $2,000 award prize to the Minnesota Veterans Research Institute, a non-profit established to support research and education at the Minneapolis Veterans Administration Medical Center. The money will fund pilot research studies into the nature and treatment of traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder in Iraqi veterans.
