ABOUT
Dr Michael Spencer
MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow
Dr Michael Spencer is MRC Clinician Scientist Fellow at the University of Cambridge, and Principal Investigator (PI) and Senior Clinical Research Associate at the Autism Research Centre. He holds degrees from the University of Cambridge - BA (Hons), MB, BChir, MA, MD - and is a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Dr Spencer is an Honorary Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist, and his clinical work is based in the Asperger Service at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust.
Dr Spencer was Honorary Clinical Lecturer and Clinical Research Fellow at the Division of Psychiatry, University of Edinburgh (2004-2008), where he used qualitative and quantitative image analysis techniques to investigate the neuroanatomical correlates of features of a range of neurodevelopmental disorders - including features of autism, early psychosis and intellectual disability - in adolescents with special educational needs, and he lectured to medical students and doctors in training. He also coordinated undergraduate teaching for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Dr Spencer has supervised undergraduates as well as clinical medical students at Downing College and Queens College (2001-2002). He currently delivers lectures on autism to medical students at the University of Cambridge, and supervises PhD students at the Autism Research Centre.
He has authored or co-authored 20 publications in the field of autism research or related neuroscience themes and 25 national or international conference presentations. He has received awards from the MRC (MRC Clinician Scientist Fellowship), the European Society of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Donald Cohen Fellowship), the University of Cambridge (Parke Davis Exchange Fellowship), the Autism Research UK 2007 Conference (1st prize for poster presentation) and the British Journal of Psychiatry (Highly Commended Peer Reviewer).
His research group is currently using structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to investigate autism and the broader phenotype in teenagers.
Profile