Jean-Claude Darcheville
Université Charles de Gaulle
Dr. Jean-Claude Darcheville is professor of psychology at Université Charles de Gaulle, which is a part of the University of Lille in France. Professor Darcheville received his Ph.D. in developmental psychology from that same university. He has remained on the faculty at Lille throughout his academic career, where he conducts research with infants and children in-among other areas-perception, schedule performance, timing, self-control, number conservation, imitation, and complex stimulus control. He also has an active research program in behavioral neuroscience, exploring the relation between reinforcement contingencies and brain function, and is a pioneer researcher in the area of nonlinear dynamic systems. His work on nonlinear dynamic systems, conducted in collaboration with mathematicians, computer scientists, and neurobiologists, involves not only conceptual analyses of the relevance of such an approach to problems of development and behavioral control, but also the conduct of experiments demonstrating the value of such an analysis. He has published extensively in all of these areas. Professor Darcheville established the only doctoral program in behavior analysis in France and, in collaboration with his fellow professor and former student Vinca Rivière, he was instrumental in establishing the only master's program in applied behavior analysis. Graduates of the latter provide heretofore unavailable behavioral services to children, parents, and other health care providers in France. As such, his direct impact on the well-being of French children is immeasurable. Professor Darcheville was for a number of years the sole voice of behavior analysis in France, a circumstance he rectified through the aforementioned programs that have trained not only practitioners, but also a number of internationally prominent behavior analysts teaching and conducting research at universities in several countries. The programs he has developed at Lille are a mainstay of the international development of behavior analysis.