Kathy Ruddy is a Senior Lecturer of Psychology at Queens University Belfast. Prof. Ruddy was awarded a first class honours BSc degree in Psychology from Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) in 2010, and in the same year was named by The Times Higher Education as UK graduate of the year in the category of Social Science and Humanities.

She then conducted a PhD under the supervision of Prof. Richard Carson using a range of neuroimaging techniques to investigate transfer of motor learning between the two brain hemispheres (also at QUB), graduating in 2014. Following this she worked for three years as a postdoctoral researcher in the Neural Control of Movement Lab at ETH Zürich in Switzerland.

In 2017 she was awarded a two year fellowship from the Irish Research Council, to develop a new form of brain-computer interface at Trinity College Dublin under the supervision of Prof. Robert Whelan.

In 2018 she was presented with the Early Career Investigator Award from Neuroscience Ireland.

In 2019 she secured €712,000 in funding from the Health Research Board to establish the Translational Brain Health Lab at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, and won the Early Career Award from the Neuropsychology division of the Psychological Society of Ireland.

She is now coordinating a clinical trial in collaboration with St. James Hospital and Tallaght Hospital in Dublin, testing the efficacy of using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) neurofeedback to improve upper limb function in stroke survivors.

Olga holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology specialising in “Social Work. Management of Social Processes” from the Zaporizhzhya National University, Ukraine. She also obtained a Master’s of Sociology in 2006 from the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Olga furthermore obtained a Bachelor’s degree in psychology specialising in practical psychology from Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv, Ukraine. In her thesis she was researching the stress levels at the beginning of the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic and quarantine in 2019.

Olga is a practicing psychologist in Ukraine and a writer of fantasy literature. Olga started working in the laboratory in August 2022 as a Research Assistant. She is involved in collecting data from study participants.

Lamia completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at University College Dublin (UCD) in 2020, and her Master’s degree in Applied Psychology at Trinity College in 2022. Her Master’s thesis focused on the intergenerational transmission of trauma through parenting. Her research intimately examined parenting practices, and the subsequent effects of adverse childhood experiences on mothering. Before starting at the TBH lab, Lamia worked as an Assistant Psychologist at a family-orientated service. Under clinical supervision, Lamia conducted cognitive assessments, personality assessments, functional behaviour assessments and devised mental health plans for service users.

Lamia began as a research assistant with the TBH lab in February. She will be assisting Dr. Ruddy on her research using TMS for stroke rehabilitation.

After receiving my BSc in Human Kinetics (University of Guelph, Canada) I obtained my Master’s degree in Exercise and Sports Sciences (University of Florida, USA) where I studied upper limb motor recovery in stroke patients.

I then completed my PhD degree in Neuroscience (University of Alberta, Canada) using both animal and human models to study balance regulation during walking. Following the PhD, I completed over three years of postdoctoral training at the University of Waterloo (Canada) where I helped develop a model to study cortical contributions to human balance.

During this time, I also studied how the prefrontal cortex (an area critical for executive function) modifies sensory transmission according to task demands. Notably, my research into balance control has encompassed wide-ranging perspectives in an attempt to understand this complex and distributed form of sensorimotor control.

Most recently, I was a research fellow at Queens University Belfast (United Kingdom) where I investigated neural adaptations that underlie motor learning, specifically addressing how these adaptations change with an aging nervous system.

Collectively, my research over the past 15 years has provided insight into the neural control of balance and offered a greater understanding of how the nervous system is transformed by purposeful motor practice

Claire is a Chartered Health Psychologist and a Registered General Nurse with a B.Sc. (Hons) in Psychology from Birkbeck, University of London (2002) and Ph.D. from the Department of Clinical Medicine, Trinity College Dublin (2008). Her scientific interests include examining and understanding consequences of large and small cerebral vessel disease and neurodegeneration on the behavioural and cognitive health of older adults. In her academic role, she has developed programmes and curricula for undergraduate and postgraduate courses across health sciences including behavioural and social sciences; and directs and coordinates interdisciplinary age-related and cerebrovascular disease research. Her research experience has also included starting up and project managing pharmacological cardiovascular, endocrine and neurology clinical trials for NHS hospitals and academic clinical centres in the UK including for example, the European wide trial using riluzole as a potential disease-modifying agent in Parkinson plus disorders (NNIPPS: Neuroprotection and Natural History in Parkinson Plus Syndromes). She has 90+ publications in medical, nursing, psychology and age-related journals and reviewer for over 10 journals and contributes to 2 editorial boards. She’s a member of the European Stroke Organisation and reviewer for Stroke Association UK Project Grants. She recently completed MSc in Advanced Neuroimaging with University College London with distinction for thesis on Neuroimaging and cognition in antiphospholipid syndrome.

For fun, she likes to travel and as a visiting professor in 2012, completed a series of research placements in other international rehabilitation science centres’ e.g. ​University of Toronto; Auckland University of Technology, Melbourne’s Florey Institute of Neuroscience, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Association for Gerontology in Hong Kong. Academic management and leadership roles have included Director for International Initiatives and Global Relations for the School of Nursing and Midwifery (SONM), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) from 2016 to 2018 and Programme Subject Lead for Psychology, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Bahrain (2013 to 2016).

Dr Kennedy completed her BSc in Psychology from Queens University Belfast (QUB) in 2005, following this she was awarded Helen Ramsey Turtle Scholarship to complete a research internship in Harvard University and Boston University in Neuropsychology. She conducted a PhD in QUB with Professor Richard Carson into the use of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques to utilise neuroplasticity in the upper limbs.

After her PhD in 2010 she worked for 7 years as a Lecturer in Rehabilitation Neuroscience as a member of the Acquired Brain Injury Alliance in University of East Anglia (UEA). During this time she was involved in 2 large Medical Research Council (MRC) funded stroke rehabilitation trials, including neurophysiological lead for FAST INdICATE Trial (£1.4million) investigating upper limb stroke rehabilitation using non-invasive brain stimulation.

Since 2017 she has worked as Lecturer in School of Psychology, Ulster University, where she is joint lead of the Cognitive Neuroscience lab. Her research interests include the capitalising of neuroplasticity using non-invasive methods of stimulation. She works with stroke survivors to investigate the interaction between motor, sensory and cognitive aspects of long term recovery from stroke.

Niamh sits on a number of key stroke committees including James Lind Alliance Priority Setting Partnership, UK Stroke forum scientific committee/steering group and as Deputy Chairperson N.Ireland Multidisciplinary Stroke Association (NIMAST). She has received funding from a range of funders including Wolfson Foundation; British Academy/Newton Fund; Stroke Association; Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke; MS Society; Department for the Economy and industrial partnerships. She works collaboratively with Allied Health Professionals, Neuroscientists, Psychologists and industrial partners. She is actively involved in public communication of science including a variety of outreach activities and Science festival events.

Colin received a Bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Zurich in early 2018, with a thesis focusing on the formation of flashbulb memories. In June 2019, he finished a masters in psychology at the same University with a thesis on the effect of bodily manipulations on the Heartbeat Evoked Potential.

Colin started his PhD in September 2019 which involves a clinical trial testing a new form of brain-computer interface using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) neurofeedback with stroke patients.

During his studies Colin has worked with Electroencephalography (EEG), Virtual Reality, Eye-tracking, functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and analysis software such as R, MATLAB SPM, SPSS and diverse survey tools.

Colin is currently conducting a randomised controlled trial to test a new therapy using individual brain responses to TMS with the aim of improving the pace and scope of conventional therapy after cerebrovascular accidents. Individuals in the subacute phase of stroke recovery will receive meaningful neurofeedback, to help them develop individualised strategies to enhance corticomotor excitability. Colin’s techniques primarily involve TMS, EEG, fMRI and questionnaires. Post-stroke paralysis is a leading cause of adult disability and Colin believes that developing new stroke rehabilitation techniques is essential to improve the quality of life of survivors and to reduce costs of healthcare.