Susan Leekam is an Emerita Professor at Cardiff University and a Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Fellow. She has thirty-five years of research experience in the study of neurodevelopment with a background in cognitive and language development and clinical research. In her clinical research in autism she has developed assessment techniques and training resources that are used in NHS clinical services in Wales, in Europe and in other countries in the world.

Sue was the founding Director of the first national centre for autism research in the UK, the Wales Autism Research Centre. She has experience in the development of collaborative expertise networks that span research, government, and charity sectors. She has served on steering committees for the Welsh Government’s Autism Strategic Action Plan, and the NHS All-Wales Neurodevelopmental Services Pathway, and on MRC, NIHR and ESRC programme committees. In other network projects, she has promoted participatory research within the autism research agenda and is a member of the RECODE DCM Scientific Steering Committee.