UW News

October 21, 2010

Welcome event for UW Autism Center Director Wendy Stone looks at autism science

“Autism Science: From Research to Clinic and Back Again” is the topic of a welcome event this month for the new director of the UW Autism Center, Wendy Stone. The event is a daylong symposium and discussion of ideas for integrating findings from diverse fields to better understand and treat autism.

The program takes place from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Friday, Oct. 29, at the Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), 2700 24th Ave. East, Seattle. The event is free, but registration is required by Monday, Oct. 25, by calling the UW Autism Center toll-free at 1-877-408-UWAC (8922). Coffee and lunch will be provided, and a reception follows in the Brinkley Gallery .

Pat Levitt of the Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, will give the keynote address. The topic is, “Facing the Challenges of Clinical-Basic Translation for Autism Spectrum Disorders.”

Guest speakers and their presentations are:


Annette Estes, UW Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences and UW Autism Center: “Innovations in Early Autism Intervention: From Genes, to the Brain, to Behavior”

Jessica Sommerville, UW Department of Psychology: “The Development of Action Production and Action Understanding in Infancy”

James McPartland, Yale Child Study Center: “Understanding Heterogeneity in Autism to Inform Treatment”

John Welsh, UW Department of Pediatrics and Center for Integrative Brain Research, Seattle Children’s Research Institute: A Bidirectional Research Strategy to Address Autism Pathophysiology: Successes and Future Prospects”

Raphael Bernier, UW Department of Psychiatry and UW Autism Center: “Autism, Social Cognition and the Brain”

Wendy Stone, UW professor of psychology, came to the UW in May to direct the UW Autism Center. Previously she was the director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center’s Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorders and the Marino Autism Research Institute at Vanderbilt University. Her clinical and research interests are early identification and early intervention for children with autism spectrum disorders. She is characterizing the behavioral features of autism that emerge in early childhood to understand how the disorder develops and how to prevent or attenuate its symptoms.

The symposium in her honor is sponsored by the Allen Edwards Endowed Lectureship in Psychology and the UW Center on Human Development and Disability.