Darold A. Treffert received both his medical schooling and psychiatric residency training at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He went on to develop the Children’s Unit at Winnebago Mental Health Institute where, in 1962, that he met his first savant. Dr. Treffert has been engaged in savant syndrome research since then. He was a consultant to the movie Rain Man, has written widely on savant syndrome, and has participated in numerous broadcast and documentary productions on the subject. A research consultant on autism at St. Agnes Hospital in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Dr. Treffert maintains an internationally active web site at savantsyndrome.com, hosted by the Wisconsin Medical Society. He is the author of Islands of Genius: The Bountiful Mind of the Autistic, Acquired, and Sudden Savant (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2010).
