David Fulker

{{Short description|British behavioural geneticist (1937–1998)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{More citations needed|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox scientist | name = David William Fulker | image = David Fulker, geneticist headshot.jpg | image_size = | caption = In [[Institute for Behavioral Genetics|IBG]] library, {{circa|1995}} | birth_date = {{birth date|1937|3|8|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Wales, United Kingdom]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1998|7|9|1937|3|8|df=y}} | death_place = [[Boulder, Colorado]], U.S | citizenship = [[United Kingdom|British]] | field = [[Behavioural genetics]] | work_institutions = | alma_mater = [[University of Birmingham]] | doctoral_advisor = [[John L. Jinks]] | doctoral_students = [[John K. Hewitt]] <br /> [[Michael C. Neale]] <br /> [[Lon R. Cardon]] | known_for = | influences = | influenced = | prizes = | footnotes = | signature = }} '''David William Fulker''' (8 March 1937 – 9 July 1998) was a British [[behavioural genetics|behavioural geneticist]] at the [[University of Colorado]]'s [[Institute for Behavioral Genetics]]. Among positions of esteem, he was elected president of the [[Behavior Genetics Association]] (1982), and was [[Editor-in-chief|executive editor]] of the society's journal ''[[Behavior Genetics (journal)|Behavior Genetics]]''. In honour of this role, the society maintains an annual Fulker Award, for the best paper in the journal each year, and for which the award is "$1000 and a ''decent'' bottle of wine".<ref>{{cite journal |doi=10.1007/s10519-005-7286-x |author=Hewitt, John K. |title=Announcement of the Fulker Award for a Paper Published in Behavior Genetics, Volume 34, 2004 |year=2005 |journal=Behavior Genetics |volume=35 |issue=6 |pages=791–792|s2cid=189842943 }}</ref>

==Contributions to behaviour genetics== In 1970, Fulker and [[John L. Jinks]] published a proposal that the [[biometrics|biometric]] genetic approach should be applied to human behaviour.<ref name="Fulker1970">Jinks JL & Fulker DW. (1970). A comparison of the biometrical-genetical, MAVA and classical approaches to the analysis of human behavior. ''Psychological Bulletin'', '''73''', 311–349.</ref> Seemingly a commonplace idea today, this was a landmark paper, and became a citation classic.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}

At the [[Institute of Psychiatry]], Fulker's research established that many behaviours, not only in rodents but also in humans and in such "higher" mental traits as [[Personality type|personality]] and also psychiatric diseases show genetic influences. Producing these results entailed the development of novel analytical approaches, on which Fulker collaborated with [[John DeFries]].

Fulker worked on combining quantitative and molecular genetic approaches, adapting the [[DeFries–Fulker regression]] approach to this purpose.

With a former PhD student [[Lon R. Cardon]] (who went on to discover linkage for dyslexia on chromosome 6 and to work in the human [[International HapMap Project]]) and [[Stacey S. Cherny]], Fulker worked on methods for [[Genetic linkage|linkage]] and association analysis of quantitative traits.

==Career== Fulker's father had been a miner in Wales, but moved the family to London, where Fulker grew up. He was initially trained as a teacher, and working in this profession (teaching chemistry) and as a photographer. Fulker subsequently obtained a [[Bachelor of Science|BSc]] in [[psychology]] at [[Birkbeck, University of London|Birkbeck College]], [[University of London|London University]], graduating with first class honours, and deciding to work in [[genetics]].

Fulker pursued this interest, obtaining both a Masters and a [[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]] at [[University of Birmingham|Birmingham University]] supervised by John Jinks. Exceptionally for a post-graduate student, his first publication (on fruit fly mating) was published in ''[[Science (journal)|Science]]'' in 1966.

Fulker joined the staff at Birmingham as a [[lecturer]] where he remained until moving in 1975 to a senior lectureship at the [[Institute of Psychiatry]] in London, where he also directed its animal laboratories at the [[Bethlem Royal Hospital]]. In 1985 Fulker moved to a professorship at the [[University of Colorado at Boulder|University of Colorado]]'s [[Institute for Behavioral Genetics]] at [[Boulder, Colorado|Boulder]].

In 1996, he was recruited back to the [[Institute of Psychiatry]] to the new [[Medical Research Council (UK)|Medical Research Council]] funded [[Institute of Psychiatry#Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry|Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre]].

Fulker was married to Angela Elliott with whom he had one child, Rosanna, born in 1985 and a stepdaughter, Katherine.

==References== {{Reflist}}

== Further reading == * {{cite journal| doi=10.1375/twin.1.3.165| title=David William Fulker (1937–1998) Executive Editor of Behavior Genetics| year=2012| last1=Hewitt| first1=John| journal=Twin Research| volume=1| issue=3| pages=165–166| doi-access=free}} * {{cite journal |doi=10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19980907)81:5<353::AID-AJMG1>3.0.CO;2-U |title=In memoriam: David William Fulker, Ph.D. (1937–1998) member of the editorial board of Neuropsychiatric Genetics |year=1998 |last1=Hewitt |first1=John |journal=American Journal of Medical Genetics |volume=81 |issue=5 |pages=353–354}} * {{cite journal |doi= 10.1023/A:1021663112157|author=Hewitt, John |title=David William Fulker (1937–1998) |year=1998 |journal=Behavior Genetics |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=239–242|doi-access=free }}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fulker, David}} [[Category:1937 births]] [[Category:1998 deaths]] [[Category:Academics of the University of Birmingham]] [[Category:Alumni of the University of Birmingham]] [[Category:Behavior geneticists]] [[Category:British geneticists]] [[Category:Genetic epidemiologists]] [[Category:University of Colorado Boulder faculty]] [[Category:20th-century British biologists]] [[Category:20th-century British statisticians]]