Catherine Lord (born 1950)[1] is an American psychologist and researcher. She currently serves as a member of the International Advisory Board for The Lancet Psychiatry,[2] as co-chair of the Scientific Research Council of the Child Mind Institute,[3] and as the George Tarjan Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Education at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.[4]
Lord is credited for co-developing the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R),[1] which are together considered the "gold standard" tools for diagnosing autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
Lord is also known for leading one of the largest and longest-running longitudinal studies of autism and related developmental conditions in modern research. Started in 1990, her longitudinal study of autism has followed a community sample of over 200 individuals, initially referred to community clinics for early autism evaluations as young children, and their families, for nearly 30 years.[5][6] She has authored hundreds of peer-reviewed journal articles and more than 10 books about autism through this study and others.[7]