Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen
Director of the Autism Research Centre
Simon Baron-Cohen is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry University of Cambridge and Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. He is Director of the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge, which he set up in 1997. He is author of 3 popular science books that have educated the public about autism and related areas of psychology: The Essential Difference, Zero Degrees of Empathy, and The Pattern Seekers. He has also written 2 academic books: Mindblindness, and Prenatal Testosterone in Mind. He has also written books for parents and teachers, including Autism and Asperger Syndrome: The Facts.
He is author of Mind Reading and The Transporters, digital educational resources to help autistic people learn emotion recognition, and both nominated for BAFTA awards. He has also published over 750 peer reviewed scientific articles, which have made contributions to autism research, typical cognitive sex differences, and synaesthesia research.
Three influential theories he formulated were the ‘mindblindness’ theory of autism, the ‘prenatal sex steroid’ theory of autism, and the ‘empathising-systemising (E-S)’ theory of typical sex differences. Among his scientific discoveries are “mindblindness” in autism, that autism can be diagnosed at 18 months of age, the role of the amygdala in autism, genetic links between systemizing and autism, and the causal role of prenatal sex steroids in autism.
He created the first UK clinic for adults with suspected Asperger Syndrome (1999), now simply called autism, that has helped over 1,000 patients to have their disability recognized. He gave a keynote address to the United Nations in New York on Autism Awareness Day 2017 on the topic of Autism and Human Rights. He serves as Founding Trustee of the charity the Autism Action, which uses evidence-based campaigning to improve the world for autistic people, and is scientific advisor to the company Auticon, which only employs autistic people.
He is a Fellow of many academies and professional bodies, such as the British Psychological Society, the British Academy, the Academy of Medical Sciences, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the American Psychological Association. He is Vice-President of the National Autistic Society and was President of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR). He was Chair of the NICE Guideline Development Group for Autism (Adults) and was Chair of the Psychology Section of the British Academy.
He was founding co-editor in chief of the journal Molecular Autism. He is a National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator. He is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Wellcome Trust funded award investigating the genetics of autism, in collaboration with the Sanger Centre, and is PI of the SFARI funded award investigating the prenatal biology of sex differences in autism. He also leads other projects investigating vulnerability in autistic people, including in the criminal justice system, employment, and suicidality. He has supervised 45 PhD students, many of whom are professors around the globe.
He received a knighthood in the New Year’s Honours List 2021 for services to autism and was awarded the Medical Research Council (MRC) Millennium Medal 2023, which is the highest personal award for medical researchers in the UK, in recognition of his pioneering research into the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism, his establishment of the ARC, and his work in the public understanding of neurodiversity.