Past Colloquium Series Speakers


2023

Lauren Orefice, Ph.D., February 15, 2023
Assistant Professor, Massachusetts General Hospital / Harvard Medical School
Title: Understanding somatosensory circuit alterations in autism spectrum disorder

André Fenton, Ph.D., March 1, 2023
Professor, and Director, Center for Neural Science, New York University
Title: Memory, learning to learn, coordinated and discoordinated control of cognitive representations

Adele Goldberg, Ph.D., March 15, 2023
Professor, Princeton University, Psychology Department, Programs in Linguistics, Cognitive Science, NLP
Title: Flexible generalization in autism and language

Robert Seyfarth, Ph.D., April 5, 2023
Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
Title: The Social Origins of Language and Thought

Gail Mandel, Ph.D., April 19, 2023
Senior Scientist, Vollum Institute, Oregon Health & Science University
Title: Rett syndrome: Are we on a path to a disease modifying treatment?

Corey Harwell, Ph.D., May 10, 2023
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regeneration Medicine, UCSF
Title: Development and neural diversity of septal nuclei

Todd Constable, Ph.D., September 13, 2023
Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Radiology and Bioimaging Sciences, Yale University School of Medicine
Title: Understanding Brain-Behavior Relationships

Gerald Fischbach, M.D., October 5, 2023
Distinguished Scientist and Fellow, Simons Foundation
Title: Synapses and Me

Stefano Anzellotti, Ph.D., October 25, 2023
Assistant Professor, Boston College
Title: Individual variation in neuroanatomy within autism

Sundari Chetty, Ph.D., November 8, 2023
Assistant Professor, Center for Regenerative Medicine, MGH; Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Principle Faculty Member, Harvard Stem Cell Institute
Title: Modeling brain overgrowth in autism using human pluripotent stem cells

Moriel Zelikowsky, Ph.D., December 6, 2023
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurobiology, University of Utah
Title: The neurobiology of social isolation

2022

Michael A. Long, Ph.D., December 14, 2022
Thomas and Suzanne Murphy Professor of Neuroscience, New York University School of Medicine
Title: Neural mechanisms of interactive communication

Jun Huh, Ph.D., November 30, 2022
Associate Professor of Immunology, Harvard Medical School
Title: Maternal gut bacteria dictate offspring’s neurodevelopmental and immune-primed phenotypes

Anne E. West, M.D., Ph.D., October 26, 2022
Professor of Neurobiology, Duke University School of Medicine
Title: From chromatin regulation to synapse development in autism and intellectual disability

Kate O’Connor-Giles, Ph.D., October 12, 2022
Provost’s Associate Professor of Brain Science, Carney Institute for Brain Science and Neuroscience Department, Brown University
Title: Genes and their regulation in synapse formation and function

Meng-Chuan Lai, M.D., Ph.D., September 14, 2022
Staff Psychiatrist and Clinician Scientist, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Canada); Associate Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto (Canada)
Title: Sex, gender, and autism: From clinical to basic sciences

Julia Kaltschmidt, Ph.D., May 18, 2022
Associate Professor of Neurosurgery; Stanford Neurosciences Institute Faculty Scholar; Firmenich Next Generation Faculty Scholar
Title: Mapping the “second brain”: development and organization of the enteric nervous system

Linda J. Richards, AO, FAA, FAHMS, Ph.D., May 11, 2022
Edison Professor and Chair, Department of Neuroscience; Director, McDonnell Center for Cellular & Molecular Neurobiology, Washington University School of Medicine
Title: Etiology and impact of Corpus Callosum Dysgenesis

Liuba Papeo, Ph.D., April 13, 2022
Principal Investigator of THEMPO, Institut des Sciences Cognitives “Marc Jeannerod”, UMR5229, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (France)
Title: Relation perception and the social function of vision

Pamela Feliciano, Ph.D., March 30, 2022
Scientific Director, SPARK (SPARKforAutism.org); Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI)
Title: SPARK: Gene discovery and return of genetic results in over 22,000 people with autism

Afonso C. Silva, Ph.D., February 16, 2022
Endowed Chair Professor of Translational Neuroimaging, Neurobiology, Department of Neurobiology, Center for Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute
Title: The Marmoset Brain Mapping and Marmoset Brain Connectome Projects: Understanding the Anatomical and Functional Organization of the Primate Brain

2021

Nirao Shah, Ph.D., December 8, 2021
Professor, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University
Title: Molecular and neural circuit control of sexually dimorphic behaviors

Lauren Weiss, Ph.D., November 10, 2021
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Francisco
Title:
Minding our P’s and Q’s: Questions in human genetics about a CNV region and brain-based traits

Constance Smith-Hicks, M.D., Ph.D., October 27, 2021
Director SYNGAP1 Center of Excellence, Director Rett Syndrome Program, Kennedy Krieger Institute; Assistant Professor of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University
Title: Genes and social behavior – what can we learn from monogenic disorders

Barbara Landau, Ph.D., October 6, 2021
Dick and Lydia Todd Professor, Department of Cognitive Science, Johns Hopkins University
Title: Timing matters: Genes, brains, and cognition in Williams syndrome

Joshua Hartshorne, Ph.D., September 15, 2021
Assistant Professor, Boston College
Title: The role of social cognition in … social cognition

Claudia Bagni, Ph.D., May 26, 2021
Professor and Director, Department of Fundamental Neurosciences, University of  Lausanne (Switzerland) & University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (Italy)
Title: (Dys)Regulation of the Social Brain

Kafui Dzirasa, M.D., Ph.D., April 14, 2021
K. Ranga Rama Krishnan Endowed Associate Professor, Duke University Medical Center
Title: Mapping Emotions: Discovering structure in mesoscale electrical brain recordings

David Liu, Ph.D., March 17, 2021
Richard Merkin Professor and Director of the Merkin Institute of Transformative Technologies in Healthcare; Core Institute Member and Vice-Chair of the Faculty, Broad Institute; Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor of the Natural Sciences, and Professor of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Harvard University; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Title: Base Editing and Prime Editing: Genome Editing Without Double-Strand Breaks

Mina Cikara, Ph.D., February 17, 2021
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
Title: Context dependence in social decision-making

2020

Maja J. Matarić, Ph.D., December 9, 2020
Chan Soon-Shiong Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Neuroscience, and Pediatrics; Interim Vice President of Research; Founding Director, USC Robotics and Autonomous Systems Center; Director, USC Robotics Research Lab, University of Southern California
Title: Socially Assistive Robotics as a Path to Accessible Personalized ASD Therapy Support

Chris Walsh, M.D., Ph.D., November 18, 2020
Chief of Genetics and Genomics, Boston Children’s Hospital, Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Professor of Pediatrics and Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Title: One brain, many genomes: somatic mutation and genomic diversity in human brain

Rebecca Lawson, Ph.D., November 4, 2020
Lecturer, Principal Investigator, University of Cambridge, UK
Title: The computational psychiatry of autism: perception, prediction and learning

Chiara Cirelli, M.D., Ph.D., October 14, 2020
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title: The Burden of Wake and the Reasons for Sleep

Gordon Fishell, Ph.D., September 30, 2020
Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School; Broad Institute Member, the Stanley Center at the Broad
Title: The integration of parvelbumin and somatostatin interneurons into cortical networks: both nature and nurture

Carlos Portera-Cailliau, M.D., Ph.D., September 16, 2020
Professor of Neurology & Neurobiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles
Title: Interneuron dysfunction in the fragile X mouse model of autism

Paul W. Sternberg, Ph.D., April 29, 2020
Bren Professor of Biology, Division of Biology and Biological Engineering, California Institute of Technology
Title: Modeling ASD genetics in C. elegans

Mark Zylka, Ph.D., April 15, 2020
W.R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor, Director, UNC Neuroscience Center
Title: Development of a CRISPR/Cas-based gene therapy for Angelman syndrome

Kevin Bender, Ph.D., February 26, 2020
Associate Professor of Neurology, University of California, San Francisco
Title: Sodium channel dysfunction in neurodevelopmental disorders

Charles Nelson, Ph.D., February 12, 2020
Professor of Pediatrics, Boston Children’s Hospital; Director of Research, Developmental Medicine Center
Title: Sensitive periods in human development: A case study of early psychosocial deprivation

2019

Neville Sanjana, Ph.D., December 4, 2019
Core Faculty Member, New York Genome Center; Assistant Professor of Biology, Neuroscience and Physiology, New York University
Title: Chromatin modifiers in autism and combining pooled CRISPR screens with single-cell chromatin accessibility profiling

Devanand Manoli, M.D., Ph.D., November 13, 2019
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Weill Institute for Neuroscience, Center for Integrative Neuroscience, Kavli Institute for Fundamental Neuroscience, University of California, San Francisco
Title: Understanding the neural basis of social attachment

Sally Ozonoff, Ph.D., October 9, 2019
Endowed Professor of Psychiatry and Vice Chair for Research, University of California Davis
Title: Advances in Early Detection of Autism Spectrum Disorder

Judith Burkart, Ph.D., October 2, 2019
University of Zurich, Department of Anthropology
Title: Cooperative breeding and the evolution of human hypersociality – Insights from marmosets

Alison Singer, September 18, 2019
President, Autism Science Foundation
Title: Autism from Generation to Generation

Elizabeth Norton, Ph.D., September 11, 2019
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders and Director of the Language, Education and Reading Neuroscience (LEARN) Lab, Northwestern University
Title: Using naturalistic measures of brain and behavior to understand autism

Baljit S. Khakh, Ph.D., May 29, 2019
Professor of Physiology and Neurobiology, University of California, Los Angeles
Title: Astrocyte signaling within striatal microcircuits in vivo

Guo-li Ming, Ph.D., May 15, 2019
Perelman Professor of Neuroscience, University of Pennsylvania
Title: Modeling human brain development and brain disorders using 3D organoids

Nouchine Hadjikhani, M.D., Ph.D., April 17, 2019
Associate Professor of Radiology, Harvard Medical School
Title: Look me in the eyes – or not?

Craig M. Powell, M.D., Ph.D., April 3, 2019
Professor and Chair, Department of Neurobiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine
Title: Genetic Models of Autism: Molecules to Potential Therapeutics

Patricia K. Kuhl, Ph.D., March 13, 2019
Professor and Co-Director, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and Department of Speech and hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle Washington
Title: Early Language Acquisition and the Social Brain: An Inflection Point for the Brain’s Human Language Network

David Leopold, Ph.D., February 27, 2019
Senior Investigator, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, NIMH
TitleWhat’s in a Face Patch?

David Ginty, Ph.D., February 13, 2019
Edward R. and Anne G. Lefler Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Title: Altered touch processing in neurodevelopmental disorders: mechanisms and emerging therapeutic approaches

2018

Nathalie van Bockstaele, Jason O’Keefe, Elise L’Herault, Michael Jauquet, Noa Alon, Pablo Friedmann, Jocelyn Odóna Holm, Jackie Lee, December 5, 2018
Concept designer and performer; Artist performers; Fellow artist, mentor and partner; Discussants
Title: A show and tell about: Autism, Interdependence and Reciprocity

Ilana Witten, Ph.D., November 28, 2018
Associate Professor, Neuroscience Institute & Department of Psychology, Princeton University
Title: Prefrontal-striatal interactions in social learning, and beyond

Elise Robinson, Ph.D., November 14, 2018
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health; Associate Member, Broad Institute
Title: Autism heterogeneity: genetic insights and next steps

Elizabeth Redcay, Ph.D., October 24, 2018
Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Maryland
Title: A social-interactive neuroscience approach to understanding autism

John Huguenard, Ph.D., October 10, 2018
Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, Neurosurgery, and Molecular and Cellular Physiology, Stanford University School of Medicine
Title: Loss of axonal function in maternal immune activation models of autism spectrum disorders

Alika Maunakea, Ph.D., September 26, 2018
Associate Professor, Epigenomics Research Program, Department of Native Hawaiian Health, John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai’i, Mānoa
TitleIntegrative epigenomic analyses support the early developmental origin of autism spectrum disorders

Jaideep Bains, Ph.D., September 12, 2018
Professor, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary
TitleSocial Transmission of Stress

Eric Nestler, M.D., Ph.D., May 16, 2018
Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience; Director, Friedman Brain Institute; Dean for Academic and Scientific Affairs, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Title: “Transcriptional and Epigenetic Mechanisms of Depression”

Ania Majewska, Ph.D., April 18, 2018
Associate Professor, Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester
Title:
“Microglia and synapses: partners in experience-dependent plasticity”

Peggy Mason, Ph.D., March 28, 2018
Professor, Department of Neurobiology, University of Chicago
Title: “The Neurobiology of Helping: Lessons from Order Rodentia”

Randall Carpenter, M.D, March 21, 2018
Chief Scientific Officer, Rett Syndrome Research Trust; Research Affiliate, Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
Title:
Development of Targeted Therapeutics for Autism Spectrum Disorders”

Joshua Kaplan, Ph.D., February 21, 2018
Professor of Neurobiology, MGH/Harvard Medical School
Title: “From compost to the clinic: using C. elegans to study psychiatric disorders”

Lauren Atlas, Ph.D, January 24, 2018
Clinical Investigator / Section Chief, National Institutes of Health (National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes on Drug Abuse)
Title: “How instructions, expectations, and conditioning modulate pain and aversive learning'”

2017

Benjamin Philpot, Ph.D., November 29, 2017
Kenan Distinguished Professor; Associate Director, University of North Carolina, Neuroscience Center
Title: “Angelman syndrome treatment opportunities and clinical biomarkers”

Helen Tager-Flusberg, Ph.D., November 8, 2017
Professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University
Title: “Exploring Language Phenotypes in Autism Spectrum Disorder”

Tobias Grossmann, Ph.D., November 1, 2017
Associate Professor​, Department of Psychology, University of Virginia and Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Title: “
The cradle of human sociality”

Susan M. Rivera, Ph.D., October 25, 2017
Professor, University of California, Davis. Department of Psychology and the MIND Institute
Title: “Visual attention as a window into understanding brain development in autism and fragile X syndrome”

Dan Feldman, Ph.D., October 4, 2017
Professor of Neurobiology, Dept. of Molecular & Cell Biology, and Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, UC Berkeley
Title: “Comparison of circuit defects in cerebral cortex across multiple mouse models of autism”

Thomas Bourgeron, Ph.D., September 27, 2017
Professor, University Paris Diderot/Institut Pasteur
Title: “Tackling the genetic and synaptic heterogeneity in autism from risk to resilience”

Rob Knight, Ph.D., September 13, 2017
Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Department of Computer Science, Director for the Center for Microbiome Innovation, University of California, San Diego
Title: “Our Dynamic Microbiomes and the Brain”

Mustafa Sahin, M.D., Ph.D., May 10, 2017
Rosamund Stone Zander Chair; Director, Translational Neuroscience Center at Boston Children’s Hospital; Professor of Neurology Harvard Medical School
Title: “Autism in Tuberous Sclerosis: From Circuits to Treatments”

Nikolaos Mellios, M.D., Ph.D., April 26, 2017
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurosciences, University of New Mexico
Title: “Out with the old and in with the new – the role of circular RNAs in psychiatric disorders”

Peyman Golshani, M.D., Ph.D., April 12, 2017
Associate Professor, Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA
Title: “Changes in inhibitory/ excitatory connectivity and neural network dynamics in a model of autism”

Joseph Piven, M.D., March 22, 2017
Thomas E. Castelloe Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina
Title: “Imaging Infant Brain Development in Autism”

Sally Temple Ph.D., March 8, 2017
Scientific Director, Neural Stem Cell Institute
Title: “Temporal programs in Neural Stem cell Development and Aging”

Christopher J. McDougle, M.D., February 8, 2017
Director, Lurie Center for Autism; Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, MGH and Mass General Hospital for Children; Nancy Lurie Marks Professor in the Field of Autism, Harvard Medical School
Title: “Toward an Inflammation-Related Subtype of Autism Spectrum Disorder”

Casey Lew-Williams, Ph.D., January 25, 2017
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Princeton University
Title: “Breaking into language: How infants find structure in patterned input”

2016

Francesca Happé, Ph.D., November 2, 2016
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London
Title: “‘Theory of mind’ and Autism: 30 years on”

Kimberly Huber, Ph.D., October 26, 2016
Professor of Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Title: “Mechanisms of Sensory Circuit Hyperexcitability in Fragile X Syndrome:  Implications for Therapeutics and Biomarker Development”

Sara Jane Webb, Ph.D., October 12, 2016
Associate Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, University of Washington & Seattle Children’s Research Institute
Title: “Face processing as a biomarker in early autism”

Janine LaSalle, Ph.D., September 28, 2016
Associate Director of Genomics, Genome Center; Professor, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, MIND Institute, University of California, Davis
Title: “The landscape of DNA methylation amidst a perfect storm of autism etiologies”

Charles A. Nelson, Ph.D., September 7, 2016
Professor of Pediatrics and Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School; Professor of Education, Harvard University; Richard David Scott Chair in Pediatric Developmental Medicine Research, Boston Children’s Hospital
Title: “Using the visual system to quantitatively evaluate cortical function in Rett syndrome and Tuberous Sclerosis Complex”

David G. Amaral, Ph.D., May 25, 2016
Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Beneto Foundation Chair and Research Director, The MIND Institute, UC Davis
Title: “The Pursuit of Neurophenotypes in Autism Spectrum Disorder”

Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., Ph.D., May 11, 2016
Professor/Co-Director, University of Rochester/University of Copenhagen
Title“Ionostatic control of the sleep-wake cycle”

Peter Kind, Ph.D., April 20, 2016
Director of the Patrick Wild Centre for Research into Autism, Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) and Intellectual Disability; Professor of Developmental Neuroscience, University of Edinburgh
Title“The pathophysiology of Fragile X Syndrome: From cell to circuit to behaviour”

Tal Kenet, Ph.D., April 6, 2016
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurology, MGH / Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
Title“Towards a Unifying Framework of Functional Connectivity Abnormalities in ASD”

Sally Rogers, Ph.D., March 23, 2016
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UCDavis MIND Institute
Title“Changing the course of ASD: effects of early interventions”

Nenad Sestan, M.D., Ph.D., March 9, 2016
Professor of Neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine
Title“Development and Evolution of Neocortical Projection Systems”

Stephan Sanders, Ph.D., February 17, 2016
Assistant Professor, Dept of Psychiatry, UCSF; Director, Psychiatry Bioinformatics Core
Title: “From genes to etiology in autism”

Catherine Lord, Ph.D.February 10, 2016
Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Center for Autism and the Developing Brain; New York Presbyterian Hospital; Weill Cornell Medical College; Teachers College, Columbia University
Title: “Early Regression and Worsening in Autism Spectrum Disorders”

Ted Abel, Ph.D., January 20, 2016
Brush Family Professor of Biology and Co-Director, Biological Basis of Behavior Program, University of Pennsylvania
Title“Male-Specific Deficits in Reward Learning in Mouse Models of Autism”

2015

Randy Buckner, Ph.D., December 2, 2015
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, Harvard University; Director of Psychiatric Neuroimaging, Massachusetts General Hospital
Title“Beyond The Fictitious Average Brain: Beginning Steps Toward Studying the Individual”

Ben Neale, Ph.D., November 18, 2015
Assistant in Genetics, Analytic and Translational Genetics Unit, Massachusetts General Hospital; Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Associate Member, Stanley Center for Psychiatric Disease, Broad Institute
Title“Genetic influences on ASD across the frequency spectrum”

Kevin Pelphrey, Ph.D., November 4, 2015
Harris Professor in the Child Study Center and Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Title“Towards a Transformative, Translational Developmental Neuroscience of Autisms”

Paola Arlotta, Ph.D., October 14, 2015
Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, Harvard University
Title“Development and Reprogramming of Neuronal Diversity in the Neocortex”

Robert M. Joseph, Ph.D., September 30, 2015
Assistant Professor, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine
Title: “Prevalence, Associated Features and Early Antecedents of Autism Spectrum Disorder in Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns at Age 10 Years”

Kimberley McAllister, Ph.D., September 16, 2015
Associate Director of the Center for Neuroscience and Professor of Neurology and Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, UC Davis
Title: “Novel roles for immune molecules in brain development and psychiatric disorders”

Beth Stevens, Ph.D., May 13, 2015
Assistant Professor of Neurology, Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Title: “Immune Mechanisms of Synapse Loss in Health and Disease”

Michelle Olsen, Ph.D., April 15, 2015
Assistant Professor, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Department of Cell, Developmental and Integrative Biology
Title: Altered Astrocyte Function in a Murine Model of Rett Syndrome

Temple Grandin, Ph.D., March 16, 2015
Title: Helping Different Kinds of Minds Succeed

Morton Ann Gernsbacher, Ph.D., March 4, 2015
Vilas Professor and Sir Frederic Bartlett Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title: Diverse Brains

Tommaso Pizzorusso, Ph.D., February 18, 2015
Associate Professor of Neurophysiology, University of Florence and CNR Institute of Neuroscience
Title:Synaptic alterations in murine models of Rett syndrome

Nathaniel Heintz Ph.D., February 4, 2015
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, James and Marilyn Simons Professor, Head-Laboratory of Molecular Biology, The Rockefeller University
Title: Understanding Brain Function: Insights from Genetic and Epigenetic Analysis of CNS Cell Types

James McPartland, Ph.D., January 14, 2015
Associate Professor of Child Psychiatry and Psychology, Director, Yale Developmental Disabilities Clinic, Yale Child Study Center
Title: The Clinical Neuroscience of Social Brain Development in ASD

2014

Manzoor Bhat, M.S., Ph.D., December 17, 2014
Professor and Chair, Center for Biomedical Neuroscience, Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Title: “Trans-synaptic Adhesive Mechanisms and Retrograde Signaling”

Guy Rouleau, M.D., Ph.D., FRCP(C), December 3, 2014
Director, Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital, McGill University
Title: Genomics of Neurodevelopmental Diseases

Susan Faja, PhD, November 5, 2014
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Title: Developing Targeted Interventions for Autism Spectrum Disorders

David Heeger, Ph.D., October 22, 2014
Professor of Psychology and Neural Science, New York University
Title: Reliability of Sensory-Evoked Activity in Autism

Stephen Scherer, Ph.D., FRSC, October 8, 2014
Director, the Centre for Applied Genomics and the University of Toronto McLaughlin Centre, the Hospital for Sick Children and University of Toronto
Title: “Autism Spectrum and Related Disorders: So many genes involved”

Christian Hansel, Ph.D., September 24, 2014
Professor, University of Chicago, Department of Neurobiology
Title: “Involvement of cerebellar circuit dysfunction in autism”

David Mandell, Sc.D., September 10, 2014
Associate Professor, Center for Mental Health Policy and Services Research, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Title: “Storming the Ivory Tower: Why Autism Interventions Don’t Work as They Should in the Community and What To Do About It”

Sarkis Mazmanian, Ph.D., June 4, 2014
Professor of Biology and Biological Sciences, California Institute of Technology
Title: “A Probiotic Therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorders?”

George Anderson, Ph.D., May 7, 2014
Senior Research Scientist, Child Study Center & Department of Laboratory Medicine,
Yale University School of Medicine
Title: “Biochemical Biomarkers in Autism: Challenges and Pitfalls”

Peng Jin, Ph.D., April 16, 2014
Professor of Human Genetics, Department of Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine
Title: “TET-mediated Epigenetic Modification(s) in Neurodevelopment and Autism”

Geraldine Dawson, Ph.D., April 2, 2014
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University School of Medicine; Director, Duke University Center on Autism Diagnosis and Treatment; Duke University, Durham, NC
Title: “Early Intervention and Brain Plasticity in Autism Spectrum Disorders”

Charles Nelson, M.D., Ph.D., March 19, 2014
Research Director, Division of Developmental Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital
Title: “A cognitive neuroscience approach to the early identification of autism”

Ron Suskind, March 12, 2014
Senior Fellow, Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Harvard University
Title: “Mapping the substructures of common affinities for ASD population to create tools for intellectual and emotional growth”

Stormy Chamberlain, Ph.D., February 5, 2014
Raymond and Beverly Sackler Assistant Professor of Genetics and Developmental Biology, University of Connecticut Health Center
Title: “Induced pluripotent stem cell models of Angelman and Dup15q syndromes”

2013

Shafali Spurling Jeste, M.D., December 18, 2013
Assistant Professor in Psychiatry and Neurology Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior Director, Electrophysiology Core, UCLA Center for Autism Research and Treatment
Title: “Resting State and event related electroencephalography as biomarkers of learning and cognitive ability in young children with ASD: Can we parse the heterogeneity?”

Marsha Mailick, Ph.D., December 4, 2013
Vaughan Bascom and Elizabeth M. Boggs Professor and Director, Waisman Center, School of Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Title: “Trajectories of Life Course Development in Adolescents and Adults with Autism”

Gagan Joshi, M.D., November 20, 2013
Director of the Autism Spectrum Disorders Program in the Pediatric Psychopharmacology Clinical and Research Program and Medical Director of the Bressler Program, Massachusetts General Hospital
Title: “Clinical and Neural Correlates of Autism and Associated Psychopathology”

Evan Eichler, Ph.D., October 23, 2013
Professor of Genome Sciences, University of Washington
Title: “Autism: New Mutations, Genes and Pathways”

Walter Kaufmann, M.D., October 9, 2013
Senior Associate in Neurology and Director, Rett Syndrome Program; Co-Director, Fragile X Syndrome Program; Co-Director, Down Syndrome Program, Boston Children’s Hospital; Visiting Professor of Neurology, Harvard Medical School
Title: “DSM-5 diagnosis of autism: bases and implications”

Richard Tsien, D. Phil, September 25, 2013
Druckenmiller Professor of Neuroscience; Director, Dept of Neuroscience; Chair, Dept of Physiology and Neuroscience, NYU Langone Medical Center
Title: “Autism genes linked via a signaling pathway for activity-dependent gene expression”

Yongjie Yang, Ph.D., September 11, 2013
Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, School of Medicine, Tufts University
Title: “Astroglial FMRP, Glutamate Transporters, and Fragile X Syndrome (FXS)”

Bhisma Chakrabarti, Ph.D., June 12, 2013
Associate Professor, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading
Title: “Reward and Empathy: Connections, Disconnections”

Lawrence W. Fitzgerald, Ph.D., M.B.A., May 15, 2013
President, LW Fitzgerald Consulting, LLC
Title: “Opportunities and Challenges in Drug Discovery for Autism Spectrum Disorders”

Ralph Adolphs, Ph.D., April 17, 2013
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, California Institute of Technology
Title: “Investigating the social brain: autism, the amygdala, and connectivity”

Stephen Camarata, Ph.D., April 3, 2013
Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Investigator, John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Development and Disabilities, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee
Title: “Multisensory Processing and Auditory Comprehension Deficits in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)”

Connie Kasari, Ph.D., March 20, 2013
Professor of Psychological Studies in Education and Psychiatry, Center for Autism Intervention and Research; Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior, UCLA
Title: “Engaging Autism: Developmental Implications for Intervention Research”

Michael Ehlers, M.D., Ph.D., March 6, 2013
Chief Scientific Officer for Neuroscience, Neuroscience Research Unit, Pfizer, Inc
Title: “Synaptic Proteolysis, Secretory Trafficking, and Autism-Related Genes”

Mayada Elsabbagh, Ph.D., February 20, 2013
Assistant Professor in Psychiatry, McGill University
Title: “Getting Answers from Babies about Autism”

Rebecca Landa, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, February 6, 2013
Founding Director, Center for Autism and Related Disorders; Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Kennedy Krieger Institute
Title: “Autism Spectrum Disorders: Early Signals and Developmental Trajectories”

Bernardo Sabatini, M.D., Ph.D., January 16, 2013
Professor of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
Title: “Positive feedback in the development of the normal and diseased brain”

2012

Alex L. Kolodkin, Ph.D., December 19, 2012
Professor, Solomon H. Snyder Department of Neuroscience; Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Title: “Molecular mechanisms underlying the establishment of neuronal connectivity”

Bhavin Sheth, Ph.D., November 14, 2012
Associate Professor, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of Houston
Title“MEG Piloted Flights From Theory to the Autistic Brain”

Matthew P. Anderson, M.D., Ph.D., October 3, 2012
Associated Professor, Harvard Medical School Faculty, Program in Neuroscience, Harvard Medical School Director of Neuropathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Title: “Cellular and Molecular Basis of Social Behavior Deficits in Idic15 Autism”

Gaia Scerif, Ph.D., September 19, 2012
University Lecturer and Tutorial Fellow in Experimental Psychology, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK
Title: “Mechanisms of risk and resilience through disorders of known genetic origin”

Janine LaSalle, Ph.D., September 5, 2012
Professor, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, MIND Institute, Genome Center, UC Davis
Title: “Mapping the neuronal methylome at the epigenetic interface of genes and environment”

Rudolf Jaenisch, M.D., June 6, 2012
Professor of Biology, Whitehead Institute and Department of Biology, MIT
Title: “iPS technology and disease research”

Alysson Renato Muotri, Ph.D., May 2, 2012
Assistant Professor, University of California San Diego, Department of Cellular & Molecular Medicine/Pediatrics
Title: “Revealing common molecular pathways in Autism Spectrum Disorders using human neurons”

Matthew W. State, M.D., Ph.D., April 4, 2012
Donald J Cohen Professor of Child Psychiatry, Psychiatry and Genetics Deputy Chairman for Research, Department of Psychiatry Co-Director, Yale Program on Neurogenetics
Title: “The Simons Simplex Collection and the Genomic Architecture of Simplex Autism”

John N. Constantino, M.D., March 21, 2012
Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine
Title: “Recurrence, Resilience, Aggregation, and Intergenerational Transmission: Reconciling family studies with gene discovery in autism”

Molly Losh, Ph.D., March 7, 2012
Jane Steiner Hoffman and Michael Hoffman Assistant Professor, Northwestern University
Title: “Linguistic and cognitive profiles in autism and the broad autism phenotype”

Eric M. Morrow, M.D., Ph.D., January 18, 2012
Assistant Professor in Biology and Psychiatry & Human Behavior, Brown University
Title: “Difficult-to-treat autism: necessities and challenges”

Ben Philpot, Ph.D., February 1, 2012
Associate Professor, Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Physiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
Title: “A new angle on Angelman syndrome”

Katarzyna Chawarska, Ph.D., February 15, 2012
Associate Professor in the Child Study Center and of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics); Director, Toddler Developmental Disabilities Clinic, Yale School of Medicine
Title: “Autism in Infancy: Phenotypic Expression and Underlying Mechanisms”