Muireann Irish


Muireann Irish 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.

Career

Irish works on dementia. 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. She has been awarded both Discovery Early Career Researcher and Future Fellow awards from the ARC. Irish's work on neuropsychology has been discussed on the ABC and her experiences of the L'Oreal Rising Talent award were described in Nature Jobs.
Irish has given science communication talks on the importance of day dreaming.
  • Diversity in science
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. Irish is one of a growing number of academic women in STEM who are committed to retaining women in science.

Select publications

  • Awards

Irish has received a number of international awards.
Irish is a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales and was elected a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 2023.

Media

  • Irish's work has been described on The Conversation.
  • Her work provided insight into why time flies as one gets older and why we day dream.
  • The ABC described the neuroscience work conducted by her and her team.
  • Dementia Australia described her work on dementia.
  • Her career path was described in Careers with STEM.