Health Research Board

I am researching how well children with and without Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) move, and how well they are able to sustain their attention to some deliberately boring computer tasks.  I am very interested in the underlying psychology, physiology and genetics involved in movement and how the brain controls how the body moves.

My working day

After checking my email, I will spend time reading new journal articles in my research area, call some potential participants and ask if they would like to take part in my research, run an experiment with a child and his/her parent, talk with my colleagues about their research, analyse data and think of new studies.

I do research because...

I am very interested in furthering our understanding of the physiology, genetics and psychology of ADHD.  ADHD is the most common childhood psychiatric disorder, affecting between 3-7% of school-age children.  If I can contribute to advancing our knowledge of this disorder, I would feel I was leading a happy and fulfilled life.

How did I end up here?

I studied for my undergraduate and PhD degrees in Melbourne, Australia and after these I thought it would be interesting to do research overseas.  A friend of mine was working at Trinity College Dublin.  We had studied our PhDs together in the same laboratory in Melbourne. He introduced me to some researchers at Trinity College Dublin, Professor Michael Gill in Psychiatric Genetics and Professor Ian Robertson in Psychology. They were working on a HRB funded project to investigate the relationship between cognition and genetics in ADHD.  We initially began working together on a project which was funded by Science Foundation of Ireland at the end of 2004.  I soon realized that much more work was needed in the area of movement control and ADHD, so I wrote an application for a HRB fellowship on this topic, which I was awarded in 2006.

What subjects did I do at secondary school and college?

At secondary school, I studied biology, chemistry, maths, history, English and religion.  At college I studied two degrees (Science and Arts), with majors in Psychology, Physiology and History and a minor in Politics.

One interesting fact about me that you might not expect.

I am a vegan, meaning that I don’t eat any animals or the products of any animals.