Dr. Butler received his M.D. degree from the University of Nebraska in 1978 and his Ph.D. degree in Medical Genetics from Indiana University in 1984. He completed an American Board of Medical Genetics accredited fellowship in Medical Genetics from 1980 to 1984 and became a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Genetics in 1984. He is board-certified in Clinical Genetics and Clinical Cytogenetics. He became a Founding Fellow of the American College of Medical Genetics (ACMG) in 1993 and elected to serve a five-year term on the ACMG/CAP Cytogenetics Resource Committee in 1993. This committee oversees accreditation and proficiency testing of Cytogenetics laboratories in North America. He is Chairperson of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (USA) and has held this position for ten years. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Prader-Willi Syndrome Association (USA) in 2008. Dr. Butler received the Distinguished Service Award from Chadron State College, Chadron, Nebraska in 1986, and the Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University in 2007. He has been an active member of several professional organizations including NIH study sections, editorial boards for journals, and conducted extramurally funded research on Prader-Willi, Angelman and fragile X syndromes, the genetics of autism and obesity and delineation of genetic disorders. He was selected by “Consumers’ Research Council of America, Guide to America’s Top Physicians” in 2004 and 2008 and to the “Best Doctors in America” in 2007-2008 and 2009-2010. He has published over 350 research articles, multiple book chapters and recently edited two textbooks: 1) Management of Prader-Willi Syndrome, 3rd ed., Spring-Verlag Publishers (2006) and 2) Genetics of Developmental Disabilities, 1st ed., Taylor & Francis Publishers (2005).
Dr. Butler was last appointed Section Chief of Medical Genetics and Molecular Medicine at Children’s Mercy Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics, University of Missouri - Kansas City School of Medicine from 1998 to 2008. Previous to that, he was a tenured Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology and Director of the Regional Genetics Program at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee from 1984 to 1998. Currently, he is Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics, University of Kansas Medical Center, engaged in a clinical genetics practice of children and adults presenting for genetics services with emphasis on developmental disabilities, congenital anomalies, cytogenetic syndromes, Prader-Willi syndrome, early onset of morbid obesity and autism. He performs genetics consultations for the psychiatry department in patients presenting with developmental disabilities, autism and/or congenital anomalies. His research interests include the genetics of obesity with emphasis on Prader-Willi syndrome and autism, psychiatric and behavioral genetics and the delineation of rare and uncommon clinical genetics syndromes.
Merlin G. Butler., M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
The University of Kansas School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
3901 Rainbow Boulevard
Kansas City, Kansas 66160
Phone: 913-588-1800
Fax: 913-588-6404
Email:mbutler4@kumc.edu
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The University of Kansas Medical Center