[6] Happé read Experimental Psychology at Corpus Christi College, Oxford in the mid-1980s and was inspired about autism by the lectures she attended as an undergraduate.

Through her tutor she was able to join a research project led by Neil O'Connor and Beate Hermelin about autism during a summer vacation.

This led to a change in the course of her life so that she studied for a PhD related to autism at University College London supervised by Frith and supported by a Medical Research Council Studentship at the Cognitive Development Unit.

Two significant parts are the discovery that autistic people and their neurotypical relatives may have increased attention to detail and that women and men experience autism differently.

[5] Happé was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to the study of autism.