Director

Edward S. Brodkin, MD

Director, Adult Autism Spectrum Program at Penn Medicine
Associate Professor of Psychiatry 
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania

Edward S. Brodkin, M.D. is the founder and Director of the Adult Autism Spectrum Program at Penn Medicine.  Dr. Brodkin is Associate Professor of Psychiatry with tenure at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is also Co-Director of the Autism Spectrum Program of Excellence at the University of Pennsylvania. He is board certified in psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, and he is an attending psychiatrist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  Dr. Brodkin received his A.B. Magna Cum Laude in History of Science from Harvard University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  He received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He then completed an internship in pediatrics and residency in psychiatry at Yale-New Haven Medical Center and was chief psychiatry resident at the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit at Yale, which included a clinical and research program for diagnosis and treatment of autistic adults.  He went on to a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience research at Yale University School of Medicine and genetics research at Princeton University. Since then, he has been on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

Dr. Brodkin has thirty years of experience in the clinical assessment and care of autistic adults, as well as in neuroscience, genetics, and treatment research on autism. He is the author of numerous publications in the field of autism research, and his research on autism has been supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Simons Foundation, the Eagles Autism Foundation, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Philadelphia Foundation.   He is particularly interested in facilitating development of social skills useful for navigating the social world of adolescence and adulthood. He is knowledgeable and experienced in the areas of autism diagnosis, psychiatric issues that co-occur with autism, the biological basis of autism, and treatment plan development and implementation. His expertise in the area of adult autism has been recognized by his being listed in the Philadelphia Magazine “Top Doctors” in the years 2006-2007 and 2009-2024 and in Castle Connelly Medical America’s Top Doctors in 2007-2024.