Francesca Happé


Francesca Gabrielle Elizabeth Happé is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. Her research concerns autism spectrum conditions, specifically attempting to understanding social cognitive processes in these conditions.

Education

Happé has stated that her grandfather worked as a scientist for Technicolor, and "made some real innovations" and that her parents always encouraged her to "ask questions".
Happé read Experimental Psychology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. She then completed her PhD at University College, London University supported by a Medical Research Council Studentship at the Cognitive Development Unit. Her thesis was supervised by Uta Frith.

Career and research

Happé has held a number of research roles, working first at the MRC Cognitive Development Unit between 1991 and 1995, before moving to the Department of Psychology and Aphasia Research College, Boston College in the USA for a year in 1995. Since 1995, she has held a role at the SGDP Centre, Institute of Psychiatry first as Senior Scientist in Cognitive Psychology, then as Reader in Cognitive Neuroscience and finally as Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience since 2008. In October 2012 she became Director of the MRC SGDP Centre at the IoP.
Her work explores the nature of social understanding in typical development and "mind-reading" difficulties in autism. She is also actively engaged in studies of abilities and assets in people with autism, and their relation to detail-focused cognitive style. As well as cognitive methods, her research has involved functional imaging studies, exploration of acquired brain lesions, and behaviour genetic methods. She is the author of numerous research papers, as well as a book on autism for general readers. Her work funded by grants from the Wellcome Trust, MRC, Economic and Social Research Council and Autism Speaks, has won her a variety of awards. She has sympathy with the autism pathway approach, including helping people step off that pathway if possible.

Publications

Happé is the author of a popular introductory book on autism for students, parents and professionals entitled, Autism: An Introduction to Psychological Theory, which has been translated into several languages. She is also the creator of a series of children's science books entitled My Mum's a Scientist. Happé has an h-index or 43, has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers, over 20 of which have more than 100 citations including:
Happé is President and Board Member of the International Society for Autism Research, and she has been a member of the National Autistic Society's "Autism in Maturity" Advisory Group since 2011. In 2013 she became President of the International Society for Autism Research. She has held several editorial roles, as joint Editor for Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, editorial board member of Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders and Mind and Language. She regularly referees for various journals including; Biological Psychiatry, Child Development, Cognition, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Science, JAACAP, JCCP, Nature Neuroscience, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Public engagement

Happé has contributed to the public understanding of science with television appearances including BBC QED, Open University, and Horizon, as well as radio interviews for World Service, BBC and ABC. Her articles have appeared in The Daily Telegraph, The Independent, la Repubblica and New Scientist. She was the subject of a Channel 4 documentary in the 4Learning Living Science series entitled A Living Mind, which was accompanied by curriculum materials for 11 to 14 years olds.

Awards and honours