UofL's 2026 Grawemeyer psychology award winner recognized for contributions to autism research

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Dec. 4, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Sir Simon Baron-Cohen has received the 2026 Grawemeyer Award in Psychology, a distinction described as carrying Nobel Prize-level prestige. He is recognized for pioneering scientific research into the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism.

Baron-Cohen is founder and director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, and is a professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, and fellow at Trinity College in Cambridge. He has published more than 750 peer reviewed scientific articles and has made significant contributions to many aspects of autism research.

In 2021, he received a knighthood for his services to autism, and in 2023 he was awarded the Medical Research Council's (MRC) Millennium Medal, the highest personal award made by the MRC, for his work on the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism and his contributions to autism research and the public understanding of neurodiversity.

The prenatal sex steroid theory considers the potential non-genetic causes of autism that might interact with genetic predisposition. Autism is a form of neurodiversity, and the brains of autistic individuals develop differently, starting prenatally. Autism is partly but not completely genetic. For decades, it was unclear what other factors might contribute to the cause of autism but over the past 20 years, Baron-Cohen made two important discoveries that helped fill this gap in knowledge.

First, his team found elevated levels of prenatal androgens (sex hormones such as testosterone) in pregnancies that later resulted in autism. Second, they found that levels of prenatal oestrogens (sex hormones that are synthesized from androgens) were also elevated in pregnancies resulting in autism. 

Baron-Cohen and his group thus provided ground-breaking evidence that prenatal sex steroid hormones, interacting with genetic predisposition, contribute to autism, a finding that independent research groups subsequently confirmed.

Baron-Cohen's team also discovered that women with polycystic ovary syndrome – itself caused by elevated prenatal androgens – have an elevated likelihood of having an autistic child. This finding demonstrates that the source of the elevated prenatal sex steroid hormones in autism is partly maternal. This observation has now been replicated in several different countries using electronic health records.

In 2017, Baron-Cohen was invited by the United Nations to give a keynote lecture on Autism Acceptance Day. He described how autistic people are excluded from many basic human rights. These include the right to education, health, dignity and employment.

Brendan Depue, associate professor in the University of Louisville Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and director of the Grawemeyer Awards in Psychology, said Baron-Cohen has had a profound influence on autism research over his 40-year career. These contributions include developing widely used assessment tools, advocating for the rights and well-being of autistic people and uncovering key areas of vulnerability such as higher suicide rates and failures to make reasonable accommodations for autistic people within the criminal justice system.

"His achievements directly align with Charles Grawemeyer's vision to give an award that reaches beyond the scientific community to society at large," Depue said.

"I am delighted to have been selected for this prestigious award. It recognizes the work of the talented team with whom I work in Cambridge, including outstanding PhD and early career postdocs who have worked on these projects. I am also pleased that the Grawemeyer Award will shine a light on our research which highlights both the disabilities and the strengths of autistic people, and the urgent need for greater support services for this vulnerable group in our society," Baron-Cohen said.

Baron-Cohen will accept his award during a ceremony at the University of Louisville on April 14, 2026. 

About the Grawemeyer Awards
Each year the Grawemeyer Awards honor the power of creative ideas to improve our culture via music composition, world order, education, religion and psychology. Business executive and philanthropist H. Charles Grawemeyer established the awards in 1984 at the University of Louisville.
Academics and community members choose among nominees from around the world to ensure that each winning idea is both innovative and accessible. The University of Louisville and Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary announce the winners in December and present the awards at a ceremony the following April. The five award winners receive $100,000 each, which they may use, if they choose, to develop and accelerate the spread of their powerful ideas. Learn more at grawemeyer.org.

SOURCE University of Louisville