Muireann Irish | |
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Born | |
Alma mater | Trinity College Dublin (BS) Trinity College Dublin (PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | University of Sydney |
Muireann Irish FASSA FRSN is a cognitive neuropsychologist at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney. She has won international and national awards, including an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship and L’Oreal-UNESCO For Women in Science Fellowship.[1]
Irish works on the loss of empathy during dementia.[2] She says she is "interested in how we remember the past and imagine the future. The relative frequency and ease with which we engage in those forms of thought belies their incredible complexity." Her career has explored how memory and imagination are changed during neurological conditions including Alzheimer’s disease.[3] She has been awarded both Discovery Early Career Researcher and Future Fellow awards from the ARC.[4] Irish's work on neuropsychology has been discussed on the ABC[5] and her experiences of the L'Oreal Rising Talent award were described in Nature Jobs.[4]
Irish has given science communication talks on the importance of day dreaming.[6]
Irish has advocated for diversity in science on many platforms, and she "is committed to the promotion and retention of women in science". She was named as one of the inaugural 30 ‘Superstars of STEM’, part of a growing movement with the goal of providing positive role models to young girls and minorities to pursue a career in science.[7][4] Irish is one of a growing number of academic women in STEMM who are committed to retaining women in science.[4]
Irish has received a number of international awards.
Irish is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN)[14] and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2023.[15]