Robert C. Kolodny

Robert C. Kolodny is the author of numerous books on human sexuality and related topics. A graduate of Columbia University (B.A., 1965) and Washington University School of Medicine (M.D., 1969), where he co-founded the school's first course on medical ethics in 1969, Dr. Kolodny did his internship and residency at Harvard University (at what is now the Beth Israel-Deaconess Hospital) and a fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. As the first medical student to study at what was then the Reproductive Biology Research Foundation in St. Louis in 1968-69 (subsequently renamed the Masters & Johnson Institute), Kolodny returned to this research institution after his training in 1972 and eventually became Associate Director, Director of Training and Head of the Endocrine Research Section of the Masters & Johnson Institute. His research focused primarily on the effects of drugs (both illicit and prescription) on sexual function, the effects of chronic illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, and hypertension on sexual well-being, and studies of process and outcome of sex therapy.

Kolodny co-authored 16 books for both professional and lay audiences, including 14 books written with Masters and Johnson, such as Ethical Issues in Sex Therapy and Research (Little, Brown, Vol. I, 1977; Vol. II, 1980); Textbook of Sexual Medicine (Little, Brown, 1979); Textbook of Human Sexuality for Nurses (Little, Brown, 1979); a college textbook titled Human Sexuality, which has been published in five editions; Masters & Johnson on Sex and Human Loving (Little, Brown, 1986), which won an award as one of the Best Books on Science and Technology of the Year; Crisis: Heterosexual Behavior in the Age of AIDS (Grove Press, 1988); Biological Foundations of Human Sexuality (1993); and Heterosexuality (Harper, Collins, 1994).

Dr. Kolodny is currently Medical Director and Chairman of the Board of the Behavioral Medicine Institute in New Canaan, Connecticut. He is also a member of the Board of Advocates of Planned Parenthood. In 1983, he received the prestigious National Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex in recognition of his distinguished career. He has been a visiting professor or guest lecturer at scores of medical schools and institutions such as The Smithsonian, the National Institutes of Health, Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Neuropsychiatric Institute at UCLA, and has conducted postgraduate medical education programs for tens of thousands of physicians and other health care professionals. Dr. Kolodny has been a featured guest on hundreds of national television shows, from Good Morning America and the David Susskind Show to Larry King Live, Nightline, Cross-Fire, and the McNeil-Lehrer Report.