Molly Byrne is a Health Psychologist and Established Professor in the School of Psychology. She is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin (BA Hons: 1994) and the University of Galway (MPsychSc: 1998; PhD: 2004).

She directs the Health Behaviour Change Research Group (HBCRG), which she established in 2014, when she received a Health Research Board (HRB) Research Leadership Award. The HBCRG is a national hub and internationally-recognised centre of excellence in the development and application of behavioural science to health behavioural intervention development, evaluation and implementation.

Molly’s research aims to improve population health by developing, applying and promoting an evidence-based behavioural science approach to health behaviour change interventions. She has published widely in the areas of chronic disease prevention, health behaviour change interventions and implementation science. She seeks close collaboration in her research with practice and policy key stakeholders, and patient and public involvement representatives, to promote implementation and research translation.

Molly was an invited expert member of the Communications and Behaviour Change Advisory Group to the National Public Health Emergency Team for COVID-19 (NPHET) from 2020-2022. She has also contributed to guideline development on the management of obesity, vaccination and cardiovascular disease.

She directs the MSc in Health Psychology and a number of doctoral progammes in health psychology and related areas, for example the HRB funded Collaborative Doctoral Programme in Chronic Disease Prevention. She is the Galway lead for the HRB SPHeRE (Structured Population and Health-services Research Education) Doctoral Training Programme.

Molly is an Honorary Fellow of the European Health Psychology Society (since 2021) and the (Irish) National Institute for Prevention and Cardiovascular Health (since 2022). She received a Distinguished Investigator Award (2024) from the International Behavioural Trials Network, recognising her enduring scientific contributions and strategic leadership to the field of behavioural medicine. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the International Behavioural Trials Network, the Executive Committee of the Health Research Board (HRB) Primary Care Clinical Trials Network Ireland and the Executive Committee of the HRB Diabetes Collaborative Clinical Trials Network. She has been Associate Editor of Annals of Behavioral Medicine (2020-2024). She is a Board Member of the Ireland Canada University Foundation.

Career highlights include the following awards: Wellcome Trust Research Leadership Development Programme Award 2017-18; Irish Canada University Foundation Flaherty Visiting Professorship Award 2016-17; NUI Galway President’s Award for Research Excellence 2015 (Established Researcher Category).