Simon Baron-Cohen is a Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the University of Cambridge and a researcher in NIHR ARC East of England’s Mental Health and Wellbeing and Measurement in Health and Social Care theme.
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 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 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 health of autistic people 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 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.