Phil Teitelbaum

Philip Teitelbaum completed his graduate studies under the supervision of Eliot Stellar at Johns Hopkins University and took his PhD degree in Physiological Psychology in 1954. His early work used brain lesions to investigate the hypothalamic control of food and water intake. This work showed that there are stages of recovery from such damage and revealed a hierarchy of control mechanisms in feeding and drinking. Surprisingly, these experimental lesions also yield disturbances in movement, a serendipitous finding that led him next to study locomotion, catalepsy and recovery of function. The disturbances in movement inspired him to learn movement notation as a tool for understanding these phenomena. Most recently, with Osnat Teitelbaum, he extended the application of movement notation to the study of autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

Philip Teitelbaum received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. He served as president of the Division of Comparative and Physiological Psychology of the American Psychological Association (1975). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Society of Experimental Psychologists.

In addition to his research accomplishments, he is a renowned teacher. For a pdf copy of his CV, click on the CV link in the menu above or below; follow the Publications link for a web-based list of the papers with links to view the actual article (where available). For Phil's short autobiographical note, follow the Snippets from My Life link (and the links therein).

Read the recently published autobiography

Give Luck a Break: My Life in Science by Philip Teitelbaum