Dr Diarmuid Verrier received his BA in Psychology and his PhD from National University of Ireland, Galway. Following his PhD, he worked as Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University where he was course leader of the MSc in Developmental Psychology and was Deputy Head of Department. Diarmuid joined UL's School of Education in 2024, where he is course director of the Diploma in Drug and Alcohol Studies.

Diarmuid's research uses a psychological lens to investigate educational and developmental issues. Within that, there are two key strands: autism and neurodiversity; and educational interventions.

In relation to neurodiversity, he is currently supervising three PhD students looking at the different aspects of the experience of neurodivergent people. For example, one project is looking at "the double empathy problem", which relates to social cognition between autistic and non-autistic people.

In relation to educational interventions, he has a particular interest in the use of comics as educational tools and developing teaching approaches that are informed by cognitive science.