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Updated 03/14/2004
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Martha
K. McClintock David Lee Shillinglaw Distinquished Professor Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, 1974 Field Specialties: Biopsychology, Pheromones, Social Behavior and the Regulation of Fertility, Health and Sexual Motivation |
Contact
Information: |
|
The
University of Chicago |
Phone:
(773) 702-2579 |
5730
South Woodlawn Avenue |
Fax:
(773) 702-0320 |
Chicago,
IL 60637 |
|
Martha K. McClintock is the David Lee Shillinglaw Distinguished Service Professor in Psychology. She is the Director of the Institute for Mind and Biology, co-director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Health Disparities Research (CIHDR), and holds joint appointments in the Department of Psychology, the Committee on Biopsychology, the College Committee on Evolutionary Biology, the Committee on Neurobiology, and the Committee on Human Development. She also teaches courses in the Social Psychology Program. Dr. McClintock has been at the University of Chicago since 1976. Dr. McClintock
was the first researcher to discover menstrual synchronization among
human females while still an undergraduate at Welleseley College. McClintock
made this now famous discovery when she observed that the menstrual
cycles among her dormitory mates became synchronized. After researching
the topic further for her senior thesis, she concluded that the synchronization
of the menstrual cycles among female friends and dormitory mates was
caused by pheromones transmitted through social interaction. This research
was later published in Nature (McClintock 1971).
Broadly, McClintock's current research focuses on the interaction between behavior and reproductive endocrinology. Because behavior and endocrine function are reciprocally linked, Dr. McClintock focuses on the behavioral control of endocrinology, in addition to the hormonal and neuroendocrine mechanisms of behavior. Working with both animal and parallel clinical processes in humans, Dr. McClintock concentrates on the behavioral and environmental control of fertility and reproductive hormones. In addition, Dr. McClintock is interested in the evolutionary function of hormone-behavior interactions, particularly their role in sexual selection. More specific areas of interest for McClintock include pheromonal communication, social modulation of aging, immune function and susceptibility to disease, mechanism and function of estrous and menstrual synchrony, social and neuroendocrine control of reproduction in Rattus norvegicus, biasing the sex ratio of offspring, psychosomatics in obstetrics and gynecology, mood variation during the menstrual cycle, sexuality, and labor complications and neural development of human infants. McClintock has recently become interested in the potentially psychosocial origins of a dramatic health disparity in cancer promoting genes between Black women and White women of Northern European ancestry. Professor McClintock is the recipient of numerous distinctions, including the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Award for an Early Career Contribution to Psychology, the University of Chicago's Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching, and the Wellesley College Alumnae Achievement Award. McClintock is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Animal Behavior Society, the American Psychological Society, the American Psychological Association, the International Academy of Sex Research, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. |
Selected publication reprints
McClintock,
M. K. (1971). Menstrual synchrony and suppression. Nature, 229, 244-245. Note: All articles are the sole copyright of the respective publishers. |