John C. Loehlin

Who is John C. Loehlin?

John Clinton Loehlin is an American behavior geneticist and psychology and computer science professor emeritus. Loehlin has served as president of the Behavior Genetics Association and of the Society for Multivariate Experimental Psychology.

He received an A.B. in English from Harvard in 1947, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley in 1957. He was on active service in the United States Naval Reserve in 1951-53 during the Korean War. He taught at the University of Nebraska from 1957 to 1964, taking a position at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has remained.

Formally retired, he remains active in research and publishing. His book on Latent variable models remains very popular. He is a keen poet. His son is the American author and scholar James Loehlin.

Loehlin's research has chiefly focused on the genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in normal human personality traits and abilities; he has also been concerned with racial differences and with computer modeling. He has been involved in several twin family, and adoption studies, notably the Texas Adoption Project with Joseph M. Horn and Lee Willerman.