Dr Rory Boyle
Rory is a Research Fellow at TILDA with expertise in cognitive ageing and Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. His work applies data science and machine learning techniques to a wide array of data, including life-history and survey data, neuropsychological assessments, electronic health records, epigenetics, neuroimaging, plasma biomarkers, proteomics, and geo-coded data, to understand how social and structural factors explain individual differences in brain and cognitive health and in resilience to neurodegenerative disease.
Rory is funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship to study how inadequate housing might influence cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease risk. This project will use TILDA cognitive and neuroimaging data to investigate if specific housing exposures contribute to cognitive decline and neurodegeneration and will then use epigenetic data to investigate the pathways through which the effects of these housing exposures are biologically embedded.
Rory joined TILDA in 2026 and holds a B.Sc. in Psychology from Dublin City University, an M.Sc. in Brain Sciences from the University of Glasgow, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from Trinity College Dublin. Prior to TILDA, he worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Harvard Aging Brain Study (Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School) and the Penn Frontotemporal Degeneration Center (University of Pennsylvania). This experience informs his interdisciplinary approach to understanding the social determinants of brain health, cognitive ageing, and resilience.
Rory’s complete list of publications can be viewed here.