It was a big honour (and great fun) to be able to give my inaugural lecture. It came just over 20 years after I started as a student at Denmark Hill, so it was an apt time to be able to look back and thank all the people who got me here. I’m hugely grateful to family and the many friends and colleagues who joined.
Professor Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh
19 November 2025
Professor Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh delivers inaugural lecture "The why and when of imaging the developing brain.”
Professor O’Muircheartaigh shared his lecture with a busy Wolfson Lecture Theatre at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.
Jonathan O'Muircheartaigh is a Professor of Developmental Neuroscience and Imaging in the Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Science, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London.
His inaugural lecture touched on growing up in Ireland, a burgeoning interest in neuroscience and how his career and research brought him to the IoPPN, examining the developing brain.
Professor O’Muircheartaigh’s research focus on how the human brain develops in vivo from foetal life in utero to late adolescence, focusing on the effect of preterm birth, childhood epilepsy and clinical exposures on the trajectory of brain development.
His lab is highly multi-disciplinary, and the team includes neuroscientists, physicists, psychologists, computer scientists and paediatricians. He collaborates directly with clinical teams within King’s Health Partners as well as across the MRC Centre for Neurodevelopmental Disorders, aiming to translate findings forward to practical clinical use and back for mechanistic pre-clinical validation.
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Professor of Developmental Neuroscience and Imaging