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If you wonder about postnominals, here goes: Uta Frith, DBE, FRS, FBA, FmedSci, ML
Beginning with her doctoral work in the Sixties, Uta Frith has contributed to the transformation of developmental psychology into developmental cognitive neuroscience. She did this by applying paradigms from information processing theory and neuropsychology to the study of typical and atypical development in the case of autism and dyslexia. She proposed that deficits in critical cognitive mechanisms early in life result in the specific signs and symptoms in both these neurodevelopmental disorders.
In the case of autism, Uta contributed to two major cognitive theories. In the early 1980s, together with her colleagues Alan Leslie and Simon Baron-Cohen, she pioneered the idea of a circumscribed cognitive deficit in the ability to attribute mental states to self and others (mentalising) in autism. The 'mindblindness' theory has guided the successful search for the neural basis of mentalising and its failures. Uta Frith also proposed the theory of 'Weak central coherence' to explain superior perceptual and memory abilities in autism. This theory refers to a detail-focussed processing style, which is proposed to flourish at the expense of the drive for overall meaning. This idea, which was pursued mainly by Francesca Happé, and more recently, Sarah White, has directed attention to the cognitive strengths in autism and in particular to savant skills.
In the case of dyslexia, Uta Frith switched from a primarily visual theory to a phonological theory in the late 1970s. First with Maggie Snowling, and later with Franck Ramus, she has investigated the cognitive phenotype that is defined by persistent difficulties in accessing internally represented forms of words. In a cross-cultural European project with Eraldo Paulesu and Jean-Francois Demonet she showed that the brain basis of dyslexia in Italian, French and English is the same, while the manifestation of dyslexia in reading and spelling performance differs in the three countries.
CV
ADDRESS
UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience
17 Queen Square London WC1A 3AR UK
Date of birth: 25/05/1941
WEBSITES
https://sites.google.com/site/utafrith/
http://frithmind.org/socialminds/blog/
http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ID7vMY4AAAAJ
Web of Science: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/C-1757-2008
EDUCATION
Dip. Abnormal Psychology 1966 Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, UK
PhD: 1968 Institute of Psychiatry, University of London, UK
POSITIONS
2007 – 2015 Aarhus University Visiting Professor
2006 – Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London, UK
1996 – 2006 Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London
1968 – 2006 MRC Scientist
SELECTED COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIPS
Chair of Royal Society Working Group on Impact of Neuroscience on Education 2009-2011
Trustee of the Sir John Soane Museum, London, UK 2009-2014
Chair of jury for Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books 2013
Member of Jury for Klaus J Jacobs Prize, Zürich, 2015-
Member of Jury for Wellcome Trust Book Price 2015
Elected Member of Council Royal Society 2014-17
Chair of Diversity Committee Royal Society 2015-18
Member of Senate of the German National Academy Leopoldina 2016-
SELECTED AWARDS
President of the British Science Association, 2017
Honorary Doctorate University of Bath, 2016
Honorary Doctorate University of Aston, 2015
Prix Jean Nicod, jointly with Chris Frith, 2014
William James Fellow Award, Association for Psychological Science, 2013
Honorary Fellow British Science Association, 2013
Honorary DBE, 2012
Honorary Degree Cambridge University, 2012
Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, 2012
Centre for Cognitive Science University of Turin: Mind and Brain Prize, 2010
Experimental Psychology Society 38th Sir Frederic Bartlett Lecture, 2010
European Latsis Prize, 2009
British Psychological Society The Research Board Life Time Achievement Award, 2009
Member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, 2008
Honorary Fellow Newnham College Cambridge, 2008
UKRC Women of Outstanding Achievement in SET, 2008
Foreign Member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Göteborg, 2008
Lifetime Achievement Award International Association for Autism Research, 2007
Samuel T. Orton Award International Dyslexia Association, 2007
Honorary Fellowship UCL, 2007
Honorary Doctorate University of Nottingham, 2007
Honorary Fellowship University College London, 2007
Elected Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society, 2006
President of the Experimental Psychology Society, 2006-08
Fellow of the Royal Society, 2005
Burghölzli Award, University of Zuerich, Deparment of Psychiatry, 2005
Robert Sommer Award, University of Giessen, Medical School, 2004
Honorary Doctorate, York University, 2004
Laurea Honoris Causa, Palermo University, 2004
Jean-Louis Signoret Prize of the Ipsen Foundation, 2003
Fellow of the British Academy, 2001
Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, 2001
Honorary Doctorate, University of St Andrews, 2000
Honorary Doctorate, University of Göteborg, Sweden, 1998
Member of the Academia Europaea, 1992
The President's Award of the British Psychological Society, 1990
SELECTED BOOKS
Frith, U. (1989/2003) Autism: Explaining the Enigma. Oxford: Blackwell
Frith, U. (1991) Autism and Asperger Syndrome. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Blakemore, SJ & Frith, U. (2005) The Learning Brain. Lessons for Education
The photo is by Rick Pushinsky and was taken for the FT At home feature written by Alicia Clegg, 11/12 October 2014.
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