Robert T. Schultz, Ph.D.
Position: Scientific Advisory Board Member
Dr. Schultz is the Director of the Center for Autism Research at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the RAC Endowed Professor of Psychology, Department of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Schultz’s research addresses the basic mechanisms that support social communication, social cognition, and reward mechanisms that might underlie social learning. Much of his work has involved using MRI to understand brain mechanisms and to create biomarkers that predict who has ASD, who will develop the disorder, and who will respond well to different interventions. More recently, he has developed a technology and innovation lab to exploit advances in perceptual computing in order to develop more granular, efficient and scalable measures of quantitative traits.
Dr. Schultz is also a site PI for the Infant Brain Imaging Study, a multisite research collaboration with the goal to understand the timing and pattern of brain development in very young children with autism. Previously, Dr. Schultz was the Harris Endowed Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin, with an emphasis on neuropsychology and behavioral genetics.