Hari Srinivasan

Hari Srinivasan is a PhD student in the Vanderbilt Brain Institute's Neuroscience Graduate Program. He is PD Soros Fellow, a NISE (Neurodiversity Inspired Science and Engineering) Fellow at the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation at Vanderbilt and a Public Voices Fellow at the Op-Ed Project. 

His graduate school research will focus on sensory processing in autism, specifically the peri-personal space, and how it relates to sensory sensitivities seen in autism. As an autistic with considerable sensory processing challenges, he hopes his research will not just add to knowledge, but also contribute to translatable solutions such as development of technology that can help in sensory retraining so that autistics are better able to navigate their body and movements in their sensory environment. 

Hari completed his undergraduate at UC Berkeley in Psychology (minor Disability Studies). As a Berkeley Haas Scholar, he conducted independent funded research into the emotions of awe and empathy in autism under the guidance of Prof Dacher Keltner 

Hari is also active in the autism advocacy space and on the boards / advisory boards / scientific advisory of six disability organizations (ASAN, DREDF, Duke University’s ACE, The Brain Foundation, Autism Europe, and INSAR). He was also selected to be on NIMH’s Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee which helps advise federal policy on autism research priorities. Hari also writes extensively on issues related to autism and has been published in various forums including articles in Time, Newsweek, Fortune and Psychology Today.