DURHAM When Geri Dawson was in graduate school for clinical psychology, her first patient had a perplexing disorder that kept him from learning how to relate to others the way most children do.
It was 1979, and autism was so rare that her team flew in specialists from across the country. Dawson was so intrigued by the utter lack of knowledge about autism and heartbroken by the impact it had on her patients family that she embarked on a career devoted to studying and treating the disorder.
We had absolutely no idea how a child could come into this world and not be able to form social relationships with other people, she says. We also had very little to offer this family.
Dawson, 62, became one of the countrys foremost autism researchers during a three-decade span in which the disorder grew more frequently diagnosed and better understood. As recently as 1994, only an estimated one in 1,500 U.S. children had been diagnosed with what is now called autism spectrum disorder. Now, one in 88 children has it, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Early in Dawsons career, she pioneered detection and intervention methods for young children that are now standard procedures. One of her more recent projects, named one of the top 10 medical advances of 2012 by Time magazine, showed that these kinds of therapy can make detectable changes in a childs brain.
She spent the past five years as the first chief science officer at Autism Speaks, a national nonprofit devoted to autism research and advocacy, where she oversaw a $25 million research program. As of August, she is leading the development of Duke Universitys new Center for Autism Diagnosis and Treatment, which will draw experts from various fields to treat autism and related conditions.
Her addition to the faculty will help propel Duke into prominence in autism research, says Michael Platt, director of Dukes Institute for Brain Sciences, by bringing together researchers from disciplines whose work touches on autism.
Shes exactly the kind of leading light that we sorely needed and that will really help to catalyze important work in this area, says Platt, who helped hire Dawson. I see Duke being a real hive for bringing together people who are doing research that is relevant to autism.
Drawn to children
Dawson grew up in Washington state in a family of scientists and engineers. Her father was a physicist at a nuclear power plant.
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Devoting a career to autism treatment and research