Stephen M. Edelson

Stephen M. Edelson
Alma mater	University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
Awards	Autism Society of America's 2000 Volunteer of the Year Award
Scientific career
Fields	Psychology
Institutions	Autism Society of America, Pitzer College
Thesis	Developmental shifts in stimulus processing (1985)
Doctoral advisor	Douglas Medin

Stephen Michael Edelson is an American autism researcher who has been the director of the Autism Research Institute since 2006.

Edelson received his masters' degree and Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His doctoral advisor there was Douglas Medin. He subsequently joined the faculty of Pitzer College as an assistant professor of psychology. At Pitzer, he helped design the computer program "Miss Stim" to facilitate the education of children with communication disabilities. Before becoming director of the Autism Research Institute, he was the director of the Center for the Study of Autism in Salem, Oregon.