Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D., Director

Stephen M. Edelson, Ph.D., is the director of the Autism Research Institute. The former director and founder, Dr. Bernard Rimland, passed away in November 2006. Dr. Edelson has been conducting research in the field of autism for over 30 years, and he had worked closely with Dr. Rimland for over 20 years. He has conducted research in a variety of areas including biomedical, behavioral, sensory and cognition. He is a Board member of the Autism Society of America (ASA) and the Autism Society of Oregon. Dr. Edelson also participates on ASA’s Panel of Professional Advisors.

For over 15 years, Dr. Edelson was the Director of the Center for the Study of Autism. He began conducting research on autism in 1978, when he was an undergraduate student at U.C.L.A. Dr. Edelson, along with his supervisor, Professor O. Ivar Lovaas, performed several studies on self-injurious and stereotypic, self-stimulatory behavior. Dr. Edelson received his Masters and Doctorate in Experimental Psychology at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana under the supervision of Dr. Douglas Medin. At Illinois. After completing graduate school, he was an Assistant Professor at Pitzer College, one of the Claremont Colleges, for 4 years. His most popular course was a weekly seminar on autism. Dr. Edelson moved to Portland, Oregon in 1989 and had taught several psychology courses at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. He moved to San Diego in May, 2006.

Please note: there is another Edelson, Stephen B. Edelson, M.D., who also works with autistic children. Stephen B. Edelson practices in Atlanta, Georgia. The two Edelsons are not related to one another.