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08.12.2025

NUI confers three Higher Doctorate degrees on Published Work

National University of Ireland had the privilege of conferring three Higher Doctorate degrees on Published Work at a ceremony in University College Dublin on 4 December 2025. These degrees are a recognition of these recipients’ great contribution to their fields.

Orla Hardiman, Professor of Neurology at Trinity College Dublin and consultant neurologist at Beaumont Hospital, received a Doctor of Science (DSc). Throughout her career, Professor Hardiman has worked to further the understanding and awareness of the heterogenous pathological mechanisms underlying the neurodegenerative condition Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), to develop novel processes and technologies that can characterise disease heterogeneity and to contribute to the development of effective precision-based treatments.

Professor Hardiman was also the first Professor of Neurology in Ireland, appointed in 2013 at TCD and developed the Clinical Neurology Unit there. She is also a graduate of University College Dublin and the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. As a woman in science, she also works to mentor other women through juggling career, research and other life commitments.

Harry Kennedy, Adjunct Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin (formerly Clinical Professor), Honorary Skou Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, Aarhus University, Denmark; Visiting Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, University of Bari ‘Aldo Moro’, Italy, received a Doctor of Medicine (DMed). Professor Kennedy’s work focuses on models of care in forensic psychiatry, through goals, pathways & processes, treatments and evaluation, and how this can impact how these models of care impact through courts, prisons and hospitals.

Professor Kennedy was also consultant forensic psychiatrist and clinical director at the North London Forensic Service, Camlet Lodge Medium Secure Unit, London and Royal Free Hospital and UCL Medical School from 1992 to 2000. He was consultant forensic psychiatrist and executive clinical director National Forensic Mental Health Service, Central Mental Hospital Dundrum, Dublin from 2000 until his retirement from the HSE in 2022.

Professor Kevin D. Malone, Professor of Psychiatry at University College Dublin, received a Doctor of Medicine (DMed) for his contribution to the field of psychiatry which he summarised in his commentary as “Death by Suicide: from Object to Subject - Thirty Years of Neurobiological, Psychosocial and Humanities Research Related to Suicide”. This research draws on thirty years of interdisciplinary and collaborative international neurobiological, clinical and humanities research into death by suicide conducted by Proessorf Malone.

A graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) in 1984, Professor Malone also worked as Assistant Professor in Pittsburgh, then to Columbia University in New York as Associate Professor and Director of Assessment and Treatment Studies at their Suicide Clinical Research Centre. In 1998, he was appointed as a senior lecturer and consultant in Psychiatry in the Mater Hospital/UCD, and in 2002 was appointed Professor of Psychiatry in UCD and Consultant Psychiatrist in St. Vincent’s University Hospital. He also co-founded Turn the Tide of Suicide, a suicide prevention charity in 2003, with Mr Noel Smyth.

National University of Ireland is committed to highlighting the excellence of the research conducted at its member institutions and by their graduates through every stage of their careers, through such means as awards, grants and support for events. The Higher Doctorate on Published Work is the highest qualification awarded by the University, and it is an opportunity to honour the immense contribution of the recipient to their chosen field throughout their academic career.

 

 

 

 

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