Mary-Frances O'Connor

O'Connor was born in 1973 in Boulder, CO, USA. After graduating from Northwestern University, she attended graduate school at the University of Arizona earning a PhD in Clinical Psychology in 2004. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology^[2] at UCLA, and held a faculty appointment at UCLA. She returned to the University of Arizona in 2012.

O'Connor conducted the first fMRI neuroimaging study of bereavement, published in 2003.^[3] As a neuroscientist, O'Connor takes the approach that "grieving can be thought of as a form of learning."^[4] Learning is required to update the brain's prediction that the loved one will always be there, to the reality that they are truly gone, or the gone-but-also-everlasting hypothesis developed by O'Connor.^[5]

O'Connor believes that a clinical science approach toward the experience and physiology of grief can improve psychological treatment.^[6] Her research focuses on the neurobiological grief response to loss with function neuroimaging, cognitive tasks, and clinical interviews.

O'Connor contributes to work demonstrating that bereavement is a health disparity.^[7]

In 2020, she organized a multidisciplinary research group called the Neurobiology of Grief International Network (NOGIN).^[8] Under her leadership, the group has held four international conferences, with initial support provided by the National Institute on Aging.^[9]

• Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award (K01), National Institute of Mental Health, 2007-2012^[10]
• Fellow, Association for Psychological Science, 2019^[11]
• NPR SciFri Book Club Pick^[12]
• Next Big Idea Club's "Top 21 Psychology Books of 2022"^[13]
• Behavioral Scientists Notable Books of 2022^[14]

O'Connor's book The Grieving Brain: The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss was published in 2022^[15] and has received praise from peers and literary critics.^[16]