H  -  M

Francesca Happé BSc PhD

Reader in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience

Francesca Happé studied psychology and went on to do a PhD under the supervision of Uta Frith at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL. Following her PhD she obtained one of the prestigious MRC career development awards and move to the Centre for Social Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry. She has maintained close collaborations with Uta Frith and has conducted some of the most widely cited research into the cognitive features of autism. She has recently focussed on the role of weak central coherence in autism. She is one of the editors for the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. She recently served on an MRC secretariat as an expert editorial advisor during the compilation of the MRC review of autism research (www.mrc.ac.uk) and was also one of the keynote speakers at the Novartis Foundation symposium on autism.

Isobel Heyman MBBS PhD MRCPsych

Hon Senior Lecturer in Developmental Neuropsychiatry

Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, working in specialist services at the Maudsley Hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. Clinical work includes developing and running a national service for young people with obsessive compulsive disorder, specialist services for children with Tourette Syndrome, and working in liaison psychiatry to the epilepsy team at Great Ormond Street Hospital. A proportion of young people seen have autism spectrum disorders, usually in combination with anxiety problems, other developmental disorders such as Tourette Syndrome, or in the context of epilepsy. Particular interests include neuropsychiatry, child psychopharmacology, patient/family involvement in services, development and delivery of cognitive behaviour therapy to young people with OCD. Vice-Chair of the national OCD charity, OCD Action. Science background in pharmacology; PhD in developmental neurobiology. Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry and Institute of Child Health; research interests include developmental neuroimaging, role of infections in neuropsychiatric disorder, neuropsychological studies in OCD/Tourettes, psychiatric aspects of childhood epilepsy.

Elisabeth Hill PhD

Lecturer in Developmental Psychology

Elisabeth Hill studied psychology and then completed a PhD under the supervision of Dorothy Bishop at the MRC's Applied Psychology Unit (now Cognition & Brain Sciences), Cambridge. Following her PhD she worked with Jim Russell at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Cambridge, and then with Uta Frith at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. She is now in the Psychology department at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Elisabeth's work focuses on the cognitive and behavioural characteristics common to a range of developmental disorders, including autism and developmental coordination disorder. She has recently co-edited with Uta Frith a book on autism published by Oxford University Press.

Patricia Howlin PhD CPsychol

Professor of Clinical Psychology St George’s Hospital Medical School

Patricia Howlin is a Consultant Chartered Clinical Psychologist, with a PhD in psychology from the Institute of Psychiatry in London, and is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society. She has been involved in research and clinical work with people with autism and their families for many years and was one of the first researchers in the UK to demonstrate the effectiveness of a home based approach to intervention. Much of her subsequent research has concerned the effectiveness of treatment programmes for individuals with autism, including Theory of Mind Training; behavioural interventions and communication training. Recent research with children with autism includes a case-control study of early intensive behavioural interventions; an investigation of outcomes for children attending specialist nursery schools, and a randomised trial of the Picture Exchange Communication (PECS). She also has a specific interest in adults with autism, especially those who are intellectually more able. Studies of adults include the development and evaluation of a specialist employment service for high functioning adults with autism, and with colleagues at the IOP she has been involved in neuro-imaging studies in this group. A further, major research interest is in the long-term prognosis for individuals with autism and in factors related to adult outcome. Other research includes outcome studies of individuals with different forms of genetic or developmental disorders, including Turners syndrome, Fragile X; Cohen syndrome, Williams syndrome and developmental language disorders.

Elaine Hughes MBBS MRPC

Consultant Paediatric Neurologist

Elaine Hughes is one of the Consultant paediatric Neurologists at King’s College Hospital. She has a special interest in the link between epilepsy and behavioural and developmental disorders, especially autism. She runs a large paediatric neurology outpatient service and joint clinics with child psychiatrists from the Maudsley. She is collaborating on a project that is designed to clarify whether effective treatment of early onset seizure in infants with tuberous sclerosis reduces the likelihood of the children later developing an autism spectrum disorder.

Mark Johnson BSc PhD

Professor of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Brain & Cognitive Development at Birkbeck, University of London, and a MRC Scientific Team Leader.   He received his BSc in Biological Sciences at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and his PhD in Neurobiology from the University of Cambridge, UK. Following this training he was appointed Research Scientist (1985-90), and then Senior Research Scientist (1993-98) at the Medical Research Council.s Cognitive Development Unit, London.  From 1989 to 1990 he was also Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Oregon, Eugene, USA, and from 1991 to 1995 Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA.  He has published over 140 scholarly articles and 8 books on brain and cognitive development in human infants and other species, and is Co-Editor of the international journal Developmental Science.

Kate LeMarechal DClinPsych

Clinical Child Psychologist

Kate LeMarechal studied psychology at Nottingham University where she did some research on autism with Elizabeth Newson. She studied clinical psychology on the UCL scheme working at Great Ormond street where she undertook specialist evaluation of children with complex developmental disorders. She worked as a clinical psychologist in a busy district service in Croydon, before taking up her current post as psychologist on the Autism and Related Disorders Service at the Michael Rutter Centre for children and young people. She combines her clinical work with a half time research appointment funded by the tuberous Sclerosis association where she is helping evaluate developmental outcome (especially with respect autism spectrum disorders) in a large national cohort of children with tuberous sclerosis.