People
Dr Cliodhna O’Connor
Dr Cliodhna O’Connor is the Principal Investigator on the PAEDS project. She works in University College Dublin as a Lecturer/Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology and a Research Fellow in the School of Medicine.
Dr O’Connor’s research explores how people make sense of scientific information and the implications this has for their attitudes, beliefs and behaviour. She is particularly interested in how people’s self-concept and social identity are affected by scientific and/or clinical classifications.
Prior to joining UCD, she was a Lecturer in the Maynooth University Department of Psychology. Her postdoctoral research was completed in the Lucena Clinic and University College London, where she was Co-Investigator on the project ‘The Brain in the Public Sphere’, funded by the Faraday Institute at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge.
She holds degrees from Trinity College Dublin (BA [Hons.] in Psychology), the London School of Economics & Political Science (MSc in Social & Cultural Psychology) and University College London (PhD in Social Psychology).
Dr O’Connor’s university profile can be viewed here.
Prof Fiona McNicholas
Prof Fiona McNicholas is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the UCD School of Medicine and a Co-Investigator on the PAEDS project. Prof McNicholas is a Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in Lucena Clinic, Rathgar and Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin.
Prof McNicholas trained in Psychiatry in Guys Hospital, and in Child Psychiatry in Great Ormond Street Hospital, London. She carried out a research fellowship in Stanford University, CA in 1999-2001 and returned as visiting professor in 2013/2014. She was Assistant Professor at Columbia University, NY prior to her appointment as chair in UCD in 2001.
Prof McNicholas’ clinical and research interests lie in ADHD, eating disorders, psychotropic medication use and mental health disorders in 22q11DS. She has published extensively in these areas and has been awarded over €1 million as Principal Investigator in research grants in Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
Prof McNicholas is an active teacher, running postgraduate courses in child mental health, and providing training events for teachers and other professionals working with children. She is passionate about increasing public, professional and family awareness of mental health problems in children.
Prof McNicholas’ university profile can be viewed here.