Speaker: Professor Tony Attwood

With a career spanning five decades, Professor Tony Attwood is considered to be one of the world’s foremost experts on Autism Spectrum Disorder. His professional qualifications are an honours degree in psychology from the University of Hull (1973); a master’s degree in clinical psychology from the University of Surrey (1975); and PhD from the University of London (1984), with Professor Uta Frith as his supervisor. While working as a clinician in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, Tony has been able to gain experience of the full age and ability range of the autism spectrum, from infants to those in their 90s, and from those whose abilities, behaviour and daily life are profoundly affected by autism, to those whose expression of autism is very subtle, such that they have been able to achieve highly successful careers and long-term relationships. The many years of clinical practice, and also having close and extended family members with ASD, have provided Tony with the opportunity to observe the long-term development of children and adults on the spectrum.