Dr. Merlin G. Butler is Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pediatrics and Director, Division of Research and Genetics and Medical Director, Genetics Clinic at the University of Kansas Medical Center. He was previously a tenured Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center from 1984 to 1998 and Section Chief and Endowed Chair of Medical Genetics and Molecular Medicine at Children’s Mercy Hospital from 1998 to 2008. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 and Distinguished Service Award in 2019 from this national parent support organization. He had received several national and international awards including the Osler Institute Teaching Award in 1988, Distinguished Alumni Award from Indiana University in 2007, the University of Kansas Chancellor’s Research Club Award in 2016, Kansas City Top Doctors Award in 2015–2022, Best Doctors in America Award for multiple years, the Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award by Marquis Who’s Who in America in 2021 and the 2021 Gregor Mendel Genetics Award. He is recognized as the number one international leader in the study of Prader-Willi syndrome and listed in the top 20 internationally in the study of developmental disabilities by Expertise news in 2021. His research interests include the development of genomic technology applied to the clinical setting and characterizing the genetics of rare disorders, obesity, intellectual disabilities and autism.