INSAR, the global autism community, and all of clinical child psychology lost a great leader in September with the passing of Margot Prior (1937–2020). Dr. Prior is well known for her pioneering and multidisciplinary work in language disorders and in autism, as well as symptom presentation in subgroups. She was an indefatigable program builder, a true globalist, and worked for social justice throughout her career.

She became the first female professor of Clinical Psychology in in Australia in 1989 and established the first clinical training program in that country. She was the Chair of the Social and Human Sciences Network for UNESCO (2005–2007). She was instrumental in developing the Olga Tennison Autism Research Center at La Trobe University established in 2008. Some of her other honors included being made a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and of the Australian Psychological Society, where she also received the President's Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychology in Australia.

In 2018, she received the INSAR Lifetime Achievement Award.

For more details about remarkable the life and times of Dr. Prior please see the obituary written by Cheryl Dissanayake, from which this text was derived, https://asfar.org.au/vale-professor-margot-prior-1937-2020/. 

In June of 2020 the Society and the global autism community also lost one of the scientists responsible for moving the science of autism beyond the conjecture of the psychodynamic model to the contemporary view of its neurodevelopmental nature. Edward Ross Ritvo, M.D., senior professor, administrator, teacher, and mentor at UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute passed way at age 90 in his Los Angeles home on June 10th. Dr. Ritvo was a pioneer in the field of autism. He was one of the primary thought and research leaders to establish autism as a neurologic and genetic condition in the 1960s through 1980s. He conducted one of the first epidemiological studies of autism in Utah employing the rich genealogical records of the Mormon community in the state. He also went on to lead research on the roles of sleep, neurophysiological differences, perinatal risk factors and biomarkers in basic and clinical studies of autism.

Ed was also a consummate clinician. Even though his work was fundamental to the paradigm shift from the psychodynamic to biological model of autism in the 70's, he had extensive training in psychoanalysis and worked hard to maintain expertise in both the biological and psychological disciplines. Dr. Ritivo was an avid skier, pilot, husband, and father whose accomplishments are of a truly historic nature in the Society. His last paper was published in February of 2020.

For additional details please see the obituaries provided by his colleague Dr. James McCraken, and Dr. Eva Ritvo his daughter, which that provided the sources for this text.