Andrew Heath
Secretary, Behavior Genetics Association
Candidates for Member-at-Large of the Behavior Genetics Association
Deborah Finkel is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Indiana University Southeast, where she serves as
Psychology Program Coordinator and International Studies Program Coordinator. She received her Ph.D.
in psychology from the University of Minnesota. While at Minnesota she began her work with twin
studiesof normal aging, using memory data from the Minnesota Twin Study of Adult Development and
Aging in her dissertation. She won the Thompson Award for the presentation of her dissertation research.
After completing her doctorate in 1992, she began to forge collaborations with other twin studies of normal
aging,including the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (Stockholm) and the Longitudinal Twin Study
of the Oldest Old. Her most recent journey to Sweden was funded through a Fulbright
Fellowship. Her research has focused on investigations of cognitive aging and functional aging. She has
made comparisons between Minnesota and Swedish samples. Recently she has focused on combining the
cross-sectional and longitudinal data available from SATSA to conduct cross-sequential analyses of the
aging process. She has been a member of the Behavior Genetics Association since 1988.
Soo Hyun Rhee is currently a fourth year clinical psychology graduate student in the Department of
Psychology at Emory University. Soo came to Emory in the fall of 1993 after completing her BA in
psychology at Washington University in St. Louis in May, 1993. Her research has focused on a genetic
epidemiological approach to the etiology of and sex differences in childhood disruptive behavior disorders.
Since coming to Emory in 1993, Soo has been working with Irwin Waldman on beginning the Georgia Twin
Registry and on the analysis of data from a large-scale Australian twin study of ADHD and related behavior
problems. Soo has been a member of the Behavior Genetics Association since 1995.
Candidates for President-Elect of the Behavior Genetics Association
Norman Henderson is Professor of Psychology at Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. He received his B.A.
from Lehigh University in 1959 and his Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University in 1961, working
under Jan H. Bruell. While in graduate school, he commuted to nearby Oberlin College to fill in for a
faculty member in 1960 and ended up devoting his career to undergraduate liberal arts education. Oberlin
is the leading producer of eventual Ph.D.'s in psychology and biopsychology among liberal arts colleges.
Norm's early behavior genetic research centered on examining interactive and co-active effects of genotype
and environment on behavior and brain size in mice. He was one of the first to incorporate informative
genetic designs into studies examining environmental manipulations at different stages of mammalian
development. He later attempted to show that G by E and G by Age interactions, or the lack of them, could
often be predicted from a knowledge of the natural history of the species. More recently he has been
examining the advantages and limitations of using selected lines in bio-medical research and is beginning
to explore QTL methodology. He was Associate Editor of Behavior Genetics from 1978 to 1981 and has
been on the Editorial Advisory Board of the journal for most of its life. He has been a member of the NSF
Psychobiology Grants Review Panel, the NIH Biopsychology Study Section and the North Central
Association of Colleges Accreditation Team. He is a past treasurer and a past president of BGA.
Stephen C. Maxson is Professor of Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychology at the University of Connecticut.
He received his S.B. (1960) and Ph.D. (1966) in Biopsychology from the University of Chicago. From 1966
to 1969, he was an Instructor in Biology and a Research Associate in Behavior Genetics at the University
of Chicago. He has been at the University of Connecticut since 1969. He has been a visiting professor at
The University of South Carolina (1986), University of Paris V (1989 and 1990), University of Bielefeld
(1993), and University of Ulm (1994, 1995). His major research interest is the developmental and molecular
genetics of aggression in mice. Current research focuses on expression of Y chromosomal genes in the
brain, the effects of Y chromosomal genes on brain and behaviors, mapping QTLs for aggressive behaviors,
and mapping QTLs for effects of alcohol on aggressive behavior. He is a Fellow of the International Society
for Research on Aggression. He has been Chairperson of the Membership and of the Public and Professional
Affairs Committees of the BGA. Currently, he serves on its Professional Training Committee. Also, he has
been on several Program Committees for its annual meetings, and he organized and chaired symposia at the
1987 (The Mammalian Y Chromosome), 1988 (The Description and Measurement of Agonistic Behaviors
in Rodents). 1989 (Transgenic Mice and Neurogenetics of Humans and other Mammals), and 1996
(Molecular Genetic Aspects of Aggressive Behavior) annual BGA meetings. He is on the Editorial Board
of Behavior Genetics, and he has been Guest Editor for special issues of BG on The Mammalian Y
Chromosome (1990) and on Molecular Genetic Approaches to Mammalian Brain and Behavior (1996).