Peter Tanguay

Peter Tanguay, MD, FACP, is a retired Spafford Ackerly Endowed Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Emeritus) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Louisville. He is the author of many articles in leading journals on the subject of autism, and has presented lectures and workshops in the United States, Europe, Japan and, most recently, in China.

From 1975 to 1985 he was Director of the NIMH-funded Child Psychiatry Clinical Research Center at UCLA. His research has focused on autism and Asperger’s Disorder. It is based upon an understanding of social communication and incorporates interviews designed to assess core deficits in the condition. One goal of the work has been to develop practical ways in which teachers and clinicians can become expert in the diagnosis, understanding, and treatment of persons within the autism spectrum. Dr. Tanguay’s recent publications include an invited ten year review of Pervasive Developmental Disorder in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. In 1998 he won the Rieger Award of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, as author of the most significant paper published by a child psychiatrist in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in 1997-98.

Between 1990 and 1997 Dr. Tanguay was a Director of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He is a Member of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry and a Fellow of the American College of Psychiatrists. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Psychiatric Residents in Training Exam (PRITE) sponsored by the American College of Psychiatrists.

He was an expert consultant on the film Rain Man which starred Dustin Hoffman.