Professor Robert Plomin is a world-renowned behavioral geneticist whose pioneering work has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of the genetic influences on human behavior and development. He currently serves as MRC Research Professor of Behavioural Genetics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London, where he has been based since 1994. Prior to his position at King's, Plomin held faculty positions at the University of Colorado Boulder from 1974 to 1986 and served as Professor of Human Development at Pennsylvania State University from 1986 to 1994, where he was named an Evan Pugh Professor, the highest honor given to faculty at Penn State. At King's College London, he founded the Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre and has served in various leadership roles including Deputy Director and Director of the Centre over multiple periods spanning more than two decades.
Plomin's groundbreaking research focuses on the genetic foundations of learning abilities, disabilities, and normal behavioral variation through sophisticated quantitative and molecular genetic techniques. He directs the Twins Early Development Study (TEDS), a landmark longitudinal project that has followed over 15,000 pairs of twins born in the UK between 1994 and 1996 for an unprecedented 30 years, funded continuously by the UK Medical Research Council. His extensive scholarly output includes more than 800 scientific papers and influential books such as "Behavioral Genetics," now in its seventh edition and considered the field's definitive textbook, and "Blueprint: How DNA Makes Us Who We Are," which has received widespread acclaim as a transformative work that elucidates how DNA influences adult behavior. Plomin's rigorous methodology in twin studies has established him as the leading authority on how genetic variation interacts with environmental factors to shape cognitive ability and psychological development across the lifespan.
Beyond his research contributions, Professor Plomin has profoundly influenced the field through his leadership roles, including serving as past president of the Behavior Genetics Association and receiving lifetime achievement awards from the Behavior Genetics Association, American Psychological Association, and Society for Research in Child Development. His work has earned him recognition as the 71st most cited psychologist of the 20th century and among the 100 most eminent psychologists in the history of science. Plomin's 2020 Grawemeyer Award in Psychology recognized his exceptional contributions to psychological science, particularly his demonstration of how DNA can predict behavioral outcomes. Currently, he continues to advance the field through his ongoing analysis of genetic data and exploration of how genomic information can inform educational approaches, maintaining his position at the forefront of behavioral genetics research with implications that extend across psychology, education, and public policy.
