The first incumbent of the Nancy Lurie Marks Professorship in the Field of Autism at Massachusetts General Hospital is Christopher McDougle. After receiving his medical degree, with highest distinction, from Indiana University School of Medicine, McDougle completed a residency in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine as well as a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. He spent several years on the faculty at Yale before returning to Indiana University School of Medicine, where he was named the Raymond E. Houk Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He was later named the Albert Eugene Sterne Professor of Psychiatry and became Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry.
The recipient of several awards for excellence in teaching, McDougle was chosen as Teacher of the Year twice by Yale psychiatry residents. He has received the American Psychiatric Association’s Annual Irma Bland Award for Excellence in Teaching Residents, the Frank J. Menolascino Award for Psychiatric Services for Persons with Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities, and the 12th Annual Nancy C.A. Roeske, MD Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student Education.
In 2003, McDougle was appointed Associate Editor of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. In the fall of 2011, he was named director of the Lurie Center for Autism at Mass General Hospital for Children in Lexington, Mass.
The professorship was established by Nancy Lurie Marks and the Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation.
