John Bancroft, MD, director of The Kinsey Institute,has been involved in various aspects of sex research for the past 30 years and is a world authority on the relationship between reproductive hormones and sexual behavior. He has extensive research experience in fertility control and its relevance to sexual behavior, psychophysiological aspects of male sexual response, and the impact of the menstrual cycle on the sexuality and well-being of women.
Bancroft received his medical degree from Cambridge University in England, completed his postgraduate training in psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry in London; and was clinical reader in psychiatry at Oxford University from 1969 to 1976. He then moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, to join the Medical Research Council's Reproductive Biology Unit, one of the foremost research establishments in reproductive biology in the world. He remained in Edinburgh as a leader of the Behaviour Research Group until taking up his current position as director of The Kinsey Institute.
His clinical experience in the management of sexual problems spans more than 25 years. For much of that time, he also has trained many other health professionals in sex therapy. A prolific author, Bancroft has published more than 250 papers related to sex research. He is the author of Human Sexuality and Its Problems, widely regarded as one of the most scholarly, comprehensive texts published on human sexuality. From 1990 to 1995, he served as editor of the Annual Review of Sex Research and currently serves on the editorial boards of several scientific journals.
While his own training has been clinical and biological, Bancroft attaches considerable importance to other disciplinary approaches to the study of human sexuality and is committed to promoting a broad interdisciplinary approach to research in this field. He is widely respected among researchers of human sexuality and animal sex behavior and has lectured and taught extensively in many countries.
During his distinguished career, Bancroft has twice served as president of the International Academy of Sex Research and received a number of awards:
Award for Distinguished Scientific Achievement, Society for the Scientific Study of Sex
Masters & Johnson Award from the Society for Sex Therapy and Research
Gold Medal of the Polish Academy of Sexological Science
Herman Musaph Prize for Sexology, Dutch Psychiatric Association
Honorary Fellow of British Association for Sexual and Relationship Therapy
Alfred C. Kinsey Award, 1999, SSSS Midcontinent Region