Thomas J. Bouchard Jr.

Thomas J. Bouchard Jr., born October 3, 1937, is an American psychologist known for behavioral genetics studies of twins raised apart. He is professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Minnesota, where he directed the Minnesota Center for Twin and Adoption Research, and he received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1966. He worked on the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart, which used case studies, longitudinal studies and large meta-analyses to estimate how far genes shape personality, intelligence and medical outcomes. A well-known case was the Jim twins, reunited at age 39. He was elected president of the Behavior Genetics Association in 1993 and has received the Dobzhansky Memorial Award, the Kistler Prize and the American Psychological Foundation Gold Medal for Life Achievement in the Science of Psychology.