The Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment

The Assessment Program at the Seaver Autism Center provides training to the Center’s clinical staff (e.g., psychiatrists, psychology fellows, and graduate students) on evaluation strategies for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. This also includes introductory training for medical students, child and adolescent psychiatry residents, formalized didactics for psychology trainees, and monthly meetings to maintain reliability on autism diagnostic instruments. Trainees participate in workshops on the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised and the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule-Second Edition, and attend didactic sessions from local and nationally known clinicians working in the field.

Medical Student Training
Medical students rotating at the Center receive significant clinical exposure to individuals with autism spectrum disorder and participate actively in research projects.

Resident and Fellow Training
Residents and child and adolescent psychiatry fellows rotate through the Center and spend time each week observing and learning about comprehensive diagnostic evaluations and treatments. Trainees are encouraged to participate in various research protocols.

Psychology Training
The Center offers autism training opportunities for advanced psychology doctoral students interested in gaining research and clinical experience through externships, internships, and fellowships.

Clinical research coordinators play a critical role in supporting and carrying out the mission of the Seaver Autism Center. In addition to administrative and study recruitment responsibilities, clinical research coordinators attend didactics and receive training on the administration and scoring of autism-specific diagnostic tools. Preclinical research coordinators are trained in molecular, computational, cellular, and systems neuroscience, and use these tools to understand the biology of autism and help develop new treatments. Coordinators are encouraged to submit independent research projects to major conferences, such as the International Meeting for Autism Research, and are often named as co-authors on papers published in academic journals.

Trainees with a passion for pediatric health are encouraged to apply to our competitive Autism Clinical Research Fellowship. Our goal in this fellowship is to see you master gold-standard evaluation and assessment of autism spectrum disorders and achieve proficiency in clinical trial design and psychopharmacology in the field. The fellowship is part of a multidisciplinary, National Institutes of Health-funded research center with programs in genetics, neuroimaging, neuropsychopharmacology, and psychosocial treatments for individuals with autism spectrum disorders.

For more than 30 years, the Beatrice and Samuel A. Seaver Foundation supported the core programs of the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment and sponsored multiple fellowships and faculty scholar awards each year. Now, that mission continues with the support of the Seaver Foundation, established in 2024. These research-based fellowships are awarded to graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty in such areas as genetic analysis, development of model systems for autism spectrum disorder, neuroimaging studies, and development and assessment of behavioral and pharmacological interventions. In 2015, a new category of fellowships was introduced for Seaver Clinical Fellows. These awards support clinical researchers who work closely with the Clinical Program to be trained in evaluation and treatment of autism spectrum disorder.

The Seaver Undergraduate Research Scholars Program gives undergraduate students with an interest in autism research an opportunity to get hands-on experience. Scholars will learn new skills, work with mentors from the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment, and build up their curriculum vitae—all while participating in cutting-edge research to better understand autism.

To be eligible to participate, scholars need to be:

• Full-time undergraduate students, enrolled in an institution in the United States at the time of the program

• Socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or with limited access to hands-on research opportunities

• Willing to allocate 20 hours/week over 8 weeks

If selected, scholars receive $3,200. For more information, please email silvia.derubeis@mssm.edu or georgia.panagiotakos@mssm.edu.