Scientific Advisory Board

Autism Science Foundation Scientific Advisory Board
(still in formation as of April 18, 2009)

Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom, MD has served the autism community for over a decade, providing scientific expertise and strategies to the National Alliance for Autism Research, and more recently as a member of the Board of Directors and Scientific Advisory Committee of Autism Speaks. He works at the interface of science and society through service on the Executive Committee and Tissue Advisory Board of the Autism Tissue Program, on the NJ Governor’s Council on Autism Research, as Chair of the NJ Commission on Brain Injury Research, on the Board of the International Society for Autism Research, and the Public Education and Communication Committee of the Society for Neuroscience. Dr. DiCicco-Bloom is a Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience & Cell Biology and Pediatrics (Neurology) at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and is member of graduate programs in Cell & Developmental Biology, Neuroscience and Toxicology at Rutgers University and UMDNJ. He graduated summa cum laude in Biology from Princeton University and received his MD from Cornell University Medical College. Following Pediatric and Neurology training at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, he received a Clinical Investigator Award supporting pioneering research on growth factor regulation of cell division in neuronal precursors.

Sharon Humiston, MD, MPH, FAAP is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York. She received her MD from the Medical College of Toledo and her MPH from the University of Rochester and completed her Pediatric residency at the University of Iowa. Dr. Humiston does immunization related health services research and is the medical director of immunization outreach programs for inner city children and adolescents in Rochester, NY. She is the mother of two children, one of whom is diagnosed with autism.

Catherine Lord, PhD is the Director of the University of Michigan Autism and Communication Disorders Center (UMACC) and a professor of psychology, psychiatry and pediatrics. Dr. Lord is currently a Visiting Professor at NYU Child Study Center where she is setting up a preschool and toddler clinic using evidence-based assessments and treatments. She is a clinical psychologist who has worked in Canada and the U.K and at various universities in the U.S., including the TEACCH program. She was involved in developing the standardized diagnostic instruments for ASD (the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), an observational scale, and the Autism Diagnostic Interview – Revised (ADI-R), a parent interview), considered the gold standard for research diagnoses.

Ami Klin, PhD is the Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychology and Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center, Yale University School of Medicine, in New Haven, Connecticut. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of London, and completed clinical and research post-doctoral fellowships at the Yale Child Study Center. He directs the Autism Program at Yale, which is one of the National Institutes of Health Autism Centers of Excellence.  Dr. Klin’s primary research activities focus on the social mind and the social brain, and on aspects of autism from infancy through adulthood. These studies include novel techniques such as the eye-tracking laboratory that allows researchers to see the world through the eyes of individuals with autism. These techniques are now being applied in the screening of babies at risk for autism. He is the author of over 150 publications in the field of autism and related conditions. He is also the co-editor of the textbook Asperger Syndrome published by Guilford Press (soon to be released in its second edition), the third edition of the Handbook of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorders published by Wiley, and several special issues of professional journals focused on autism and related disorders.

Harold S. Koplewicz, MD is the Founder and Director of the NYU Child Study Center, director of the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, the Arnold and Debbie Simon Professor and Chair of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at NYU School of Medicine, and director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Bellevue Hospital Center. Dr. Koplewicz founded the New York University Child Study Center in 1997. Its mission is to improve child mental health by expanding scientific knowledge of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders, delivering evidence-based clinical care, and translating and disseminating new scientifically sound information to mental health professionals, pediatricians, educators, parents and policy makers. Dr. Koplewicz is a graduate of Albert Einstein College of Medicine He completed his psychiatric residency at New York Hospital Westchester Division, a fellowship in child psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, an NIMH Research Fellowship in Child Psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, and the Executive Program in Health Policy and Management at Harvard University School of Public Health.

Eric London, MD is the Director of the Autism Treatment Laboratory at the New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities. He is also Chief Science Advisor of the New York State Autism Consortium which is part of New York State’s Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental  Disabilities’ (OMRDD)  comprehensive autism platform,  a slate of initiatives developed in response to the growing autism crisis. He and his wife, Karen, were co-founders of the National Alliance for Autism Research (NAAR). Dr. London has served on the Board of Directors and the Scientific Affairs Committee of Autism Speaks for the past three years. He received his MD from New York Medical College, where he also completed his residency in psychiatry. He has an adult son diagnosed with autism.

Matthew State, MD, PhD is the Donald J. Cohen Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry, Associate Professor of Genetics and Co-Director of the Program on Neurogenetics at the Yale University School of Medicine.  His research focuses on identifying and characterizing genes and genetic mechanisms involved in developmental and pediatric neuropsychiatric disorders. Currently his lab is focused on autism and related pervasive developmental disorders, Tourette syndrome, mental retardation, and structural abnormalities of the developing central nervous system. Dr. State serves on the editorial boards of Autism Research, Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders and Biological Psychiatry. He received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University and his PhD in Genetics from Yale University.