Professor Orla Muldoon has joined the School of Psychology as Head of School and Professor of Psychology.  She joins the School from the Department of Psychology at University of Limerick where she led the development of the Department over many years as the Founding Professor.  Latterly she was Director of the Centre for Social Issues Research, a unit which secured four European Research council grants, including her own, over the last 10 years. Professor Muldoon’s work is at the intersection of social, health and clinical psychology. Her current programme of research examines how the physiological and clinical implications of stress and trauma are driven by changes in social connections and resources that occur in the wake of extreme events.  Professor Muldoon holds a current Advanced Award from the European Research Council and was awarded the 2024 Public Engagement with Research Award by this Council for her work addressing gender-based violence.  She was elected to membership of the Royal Irish Academy in 2022, was the recipient of the Nevitt Sanford Award from International Society of Political Psychology in 2020 and has received funding in excess of £8million over the course of her career. She has supervised more than 20 PhD graduates to completion. She is currently mentoring 3 Marie Curie post-doctoral fellows and 5 PhD candidates. Her previous appointments were as a Lecturer at University of Ulster and Lecturer, and Senior Lecturer at Queens University Belfast, where she also completed her undergraduate and PhD degrees in Psychology.