Boehnke is the Richard G. Cornell Distinguished University Professor of Biostatistics, Director of the University of Michigan Center for Statistical Genetics and Genome Science Training Program, a member of the National Academy of Medicine, and a Fellow of the American Statistical Association and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Boehnke received an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Oregon and a PhD in Biomathematics from UCLA. He has been on the faculty at Michigan since 1984. His research focuses on problems of study design and statistical analysis of human genetic data, with an emphasis on development and application of statistical methods for human gene mapping. His  current focus is on disease and trait association studies based on genome sequence and genotype-array data. Boehnke has more than 340 refereed publications.