Francesca Gabrielle Elizabeth Happé (born 1967) is Professor of

Cognitive Neuroscience Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental process ...

and Director of the

MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways ...

at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London. Her research concerns

autism spectrum The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

conditions, specifically the understanding social cognitive processes in these conditions.

Personal life and education

Happé has stated that her grandfather worked as a scientist for

Technicolor Technicolor is a series of color motion picture processes, the first version dating back to 1916, and followed by improved versions over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black and white films running through a special ...

, and "made some real innovations" and that her parents always encouraged her to "ask questions". Happé read Experimental Psychology at

Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 1 ...

in the mid-1980s and was inspired about autism by the lectures she attended as an undergraduate. Through her tutor she was able to join a research project led by

Neil O'Connor Neil O'Connor (March 23, 1917 – October 1, 1997) was an experimental psychologist, born in Geraldton, Western Australia. He died in 1997 after a traffic incident. Education He studied Philosophy and Experimental Psychology in Oxford and serve ...

and

Beate Hermelin Beate Marianne E Hermelin, (''née'' Fliess; 7 August 1919 – 14 January 2007), affectionately known as Ati, was a German-born experimental psychologist, who worked in the UK and was a pioneer in the experimental study of autism. Her numerous s ...

about autism during a summer vacation. She planned to take a PhD at Oxford, but was directed to meet Uta Frith. This led to a change in the course of her life so that she studied for a PhD related to autism at University College, London University supervised by Frith and supported by a Medical Research Council Studentship at the Cognitive Development Unit.

Career and research

From 1991 to 1995 Happé worked at the MRC Cognitive Development Unit, before spending a year at the Department of Psychology and Aphasia Research College, Boston College in the USA. Since 1995, she has been employed at the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, first as Senior Scientist in Cognitive Psychology (1996-2000), then Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience (2000-2008) and finally Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience since 2008. In October 2012 she became Director of the MRC SGDP Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. Her work explores how people with

autism The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

understand the world. Two significant parts are the discovery that people with autism and their neurotypical relatives may have increased attention to detail and that women and men experience autism differently. She is also interested in their mental health and the consequences of aging. She has used a wide range of methods to demonstrate these aspects, including studies of twins, genetics, the effects of strokes and functional imaging methods as well as traditional psychological approaches. Her work has been funded by the

Wellcome Trust The Wellcome Trust is a charitable foundation focused on health research based in London, in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1936 with legacies from the pharmaceutical magnate Henry Wellcome (founder of one of the predecessors of Glax ...

, MRC,

Economic and Social Research Council The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), formerly the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a non-departmental public body (NDPB) funded by the UK government. ESRC provides fund ...

and

Autism Speaks Autism Speaks Inc. is a controversial autism advocacy organization and the largest autism research organization in the United States. It sponsors autism research and conducts awareness and outreach activities aimed at families, governments, an ...

. She has sympathy with the autism pathway approach, including helping people step off that pathway if possible. Happé has been President (2013–15) and a Board Member (2012–16) of the ''International Society for Autism Research'', and she has been a member of the

National Autistic Society The National Autistic Society is the leading charity for autistic people and their families in the UK. Since 1962, the National Autistic Society has been providing support, guidance and advice, as well as campaigning for improved rights, serv ...

's "Autism in Maturity" Advisory Group since 2011. From 2013 - 2015 she was President of the ''International Society for Autism Research''. She has several editorial roles, including joint Editor for ''Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry'' (2000-2006), editorial board member of ''Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders'' (2001-2010) and ''Mind and Language''. Happé was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in the

2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebratio ...

for services to the study of autism.

Publications

Happe is the author or co-author of over 205 research publications, as well as books on autism for general readers, students, parents and professionals that include: *''Autism: An Introduction to Psychological Theory'', which has been translated into several languages. *
Autism: A New Introduction to Psychological Theory and Debate
' (with Sue Fletcher-Watson)(2019) Routledge *
Girls and Autism: Educational, Family and Personal Perspectives
' (with Barry Carpenter and Jo Egerton) (2019) Routledge Her scientific publications include: * Other minds in the brain: A functional imaging study of "theory of mind" in story comprehension *Happé, F., Ehlers, S., Fletcher, P., Frith, U., Johansson, M., Gillberg, C., Dolan, R., Frackowiak, R. & Frith, C. (1996) "Theory of mind" in the brain. Evidence from a PET scan study of Asperger syndrome. ''NeuroReport'', 8, 197-201. *Happé, F. (1999) Autism: Cognitive deficit or cognitive style? ''Trends in Cognitive Sciences'', 3, 216-222. *Happé, F., Ronald, A. & Plomin, R. (2006) Time to give up on a single explanation for autism. ''Nature Neuroscience'', 9, 1218-20. *Hallett, V., Ronald, A., Rijsdijk, F. & Happé F. (2010) Association of autistic-like and internalizing traits during childhood: a longitudinal twin study. ''American Journal of Psychiatry'', 167, 809-17. *Charman, T., Jones, C.R., Pickles, A., Simonoff, E., Baird, G. & Happé, F. (2011). Defining the cognitive phenotype of autism. ''Brain Research'', 1380, 10-21. *Robinson, E.B., Koenen, K.C., McCormick, M.C., Munir, K., Hallett, V., Happé, F., Plomin, R. & Ronald, A. (2012). A multivariate twin study of autistic traits in 12-year-olds: testing the fractionable autism triad hypothesis. ''Behavior Genetics'', 42, 245-255. *Dworzynski, K., Ronald, A., Bolton, P. & Happé, F. (2012) How different are girls and boys above and below the diagnostic threshold for autism spectrum disorders? ''J. American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.'' 51, 788-97. *Robinson, E.B., Lichtenstein, P., Anckarsäter, H., Happé, F. & Ronald, A. (2013) Examining and interpreting the female protective effect against autistic behavior. ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.'' 110, 5258-62 She is also the creator of a series of children's science books entitled ''My Mum's a Scientist''. Happé has appeared in TV and radio programmes and written for the media. This includes BBC ''QED'' and ''Horizon'', radio interviews for

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

, BBC and

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an Television in the United States, American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the Disney General Entertainment Content#Current assets, ...

as well as print media such as ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publishe ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'', ''

la Repubblica ''la Repubblica'' (; the Republic) is an Italian daily general-interest newspaper. It was founded in 1976 in Rome by Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso (now known as GEDI Gruppo Editoriale) and led by Eugenio Scalfari, Carlo Caracciolo and Arno ...

'' and ''

New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publish ...

''.

Awards and honours

* Scholarship,

(1987) * Proxima Accessit to the Chris Welch Science Scholarship (1988) * ''Young Science Writer'' prize (1991) from ''

'' *

British Psychological Society The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom. History It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the orga ...

Spearman Medal (1998) * Experimental Psychology Society Prize (1999) *

Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc ...

''Scientists for the New Century'' Lecturer (1999) * Winner, King's College London Supervisory Excellence Award (2011) *

Rosalind Franklin Award The Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award was established in 2003 and is awarded annually by the Royal Society to an individual for outstanding work in any field of Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to support the promo ...

(2011) from the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, r ...

* Elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

(2014) * Elected Fellow of the

Academy of Medical Sciences The Academy of Medical Sciences is an organisation established in the UK in 1998. It is one of the four UK National Academies, the others being the British Academy, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society. Its mission is to ad ...

(FMedSci) (2017) She was the subject of a

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

documentary in the 4Learning ''Living Science'' series entitled ''A Living Mind'', which was accompanied by curriculum materials for 11 to 14 years olds. She was a guest on ''The Life Scientific'' on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

in September 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Happe, Francesca Living people British neuroscientists British women neuroscientists Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Oxford Alumni of University College London Academics of King's College London Place of birth missing (living people) Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom) 1967 births