Headshot of Mary Doherty.

Mary Doherty

Consultant anaesthetist
Our Lady’s Hospital, Navan, Ireland

Mary Doherty is an autistic consultant anesthesiologist based in Ireland, an honorary clinical research fellow at Brighton & Sussex Medical School in the United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. student at London South Bank University. She is also the mother of two neurodivergent young people.

Doherty is founder of Autistic Doctors International and Autistic Med Students, both dedicated to peer support, advocacy, research and training. She has been involved with biomedical autism research for several years, as a member of the AIMS-2-Trials Autism Representatives Steering Committee and more recently the Participatory Research Advisory Committee for the RESPECT 4 Neurodevelopment Network.

Her research interests include health care for autistic adults and the experiences of autistic medical students and doctors. Her doctoral research focuses on the experiences and perspectives of autistic psychiatrists.

From this contributor

Explore more from The Transmitter

Research image of mice microglia.

Single-gene systems-level effects, and more

Here is a roundup of autism-related news and research spotted around the web for the week of 6 April.

By Jill Adams
7 April 2026 | 2 min read
Book cover of The Brain, In Theory by Romain Brette.

‘The Brain, In Theory,’ an excerpt

In his new book, Brette pushes back against theories that describe the brain as a “biological computer.” In this excerpt from Chapter 4, he challenges equating brain evolution with programming, and the universality of neural network models.

By Romain Brette
7 April 2026 | 5 min read
Kieth Hengen looks through a small window, aligning his face with a fancy moustache sticker and rolling his eyes comically to the side.

Computational neuroscientist Keith Hengen explains his work through illustrations

The images help him communicate the “big-picture ideas” behind the mathematical principles of neuronal networks.

By Helena Kudiabor
7 April 2026 | 4 min read