Speaker
Professor Francesca Happé CBE
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at King’s College London, and ACAMH Board Member
Biography
Francesca Happé is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at King’s College London, and has, for the last 30 years, focused her research on autism. Her work has explored the nature of social understanding in neurotypical development and ‘mentalising’ difficulties in autism. She is also actively engaged in studies of abilities and assets in autism, and their relation to detail-focused cognitive style. Her most recent work focuses on mental health on the autism spectrum, and under-researched subgroups including women and the elderly. Her research methods have spanned cognitive experiments, functional neuroimaging, exploration of acquired brain lesions, and behaviour genetic approaches. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Academy of Medical Sciences, past-President of the International Society for Autism Research (INSAR; 2013-2015), and recipient of the British Psychological Society Spearman Medal and President’s Award, the Experimental Psychology Society Prize and the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award. Francesca was awarded a CBE in December 2020 for services to the study of autism.
A member of ACAMH since she started her PhD, and a past Editor of the JCPP, Francesca is committed to the values and goals of the Association.