My research falls within the area developmental psychopathlogy with particualar expertise in developmental neuropsychology. I completed my PhDin 1996  on the neuropsychology of schizophrenia at the Institute of Psychaiatry in London under the supervision of Sir Robin Murray. Since then I have published widely in the area of psychosis, with a particular focus on understanding the neurodevelopmental origins and I was the PI on the Northern Ireland First Episode Psychosis study which I set up in 2002. My expertise in developmental neuropsychology was developed during my post-doctoral research at the Institute of Psychiatary when I collaborated with paediatricians from University College Hospital on a longitudinal study investigating the long-term outcome of very preterm birth. At the University of Manchester (2004-2008) I was able to develop my research interests in developmental psychopathology and to use state of the art structural and funcional neuroimaging techniques to understand both normal and abnormal brain development.  Since joining the school of Psychology at Queen's I ran the Northern Ireland Childhood Adversity Study (NICAS), which was funded by the ESRC (2016-2020). Currently I am working as part of the All Ireland Paediatric Cardiology Research Network (2021-2026) as lead on the Neurodevelopmental outcomes aspect of the research. I am also Consultant Neuropsychologist on the EU Horizon 2020  Retinal and cognitive dysfunction in Type 2 diabetes project (RECOGNIZED).