Patrick McNamara, Ph.D., one of NCU’s new full-time graduate school dissertation chairs, is an expert in emerging fields – and his passion is helping doctoral students with research projects.
Dr. Patrick McNamara earned his Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience in 1991 at Boston University. Since then, he has published hundreds of peer reviewed articles on biomedicine and neuroscience. Dr. McNamara has won multiple National Institutes of Health (NIH) awards and a VA Merit Review Award. He is the published author of five books on neuropsychology and has edited several book collections. Graduate School dissertation chair since July, the former Director of the Evolutionary Neurobehavior Laboratory at Boston University has many areas of research interest, including: neuropsychology, aging, dementia, sleep and dreams, spirituality, plus medicine and psychiatric disorders.
“I was drawn to NCU because I really think that we’re doing something unique. Fully online education delivery is the wave of the future, and I believe that our One-to-One faculty mentored approach is crucial to successful graduate careers,” notes Dr. McNamara.
“Very few institutions have the high-quality delivery we offer, especially for beginning students,” he continues. “At Boston University, I witnessed superior teaching through detailed feedback, and it makes people blossom. Once a student knows that their work will be recognized, they’ll spend the time and effort to do great work, and that’s captured beautifully in our education model,” said Dr. McNamara.
Although Dr. McNamara’s background is a neuropsychology, he’s energized by the opportunity at NCU to work with students from around the world on education, business and psychology research.
“My unique affinity is for helping students working on doctoral projects – from the beginning to the defense. I’ve been designing research projects my entire career and it’s really what I love to do.”
Dr. McNamara’s work in the areas of sleep disorders and dreams, Parkinson’s Disease, and religious experiences has attracted mainstream attention and he has gained exposure as a subject matter specialist on “Consciousness” for the PBS Series “Closer to Truth.”
“All three of these fields are now emerging as bona fide scientific fields of interest, and are no longer considered fringe science,” relates Dr. McNamara. With these fields becoming mainstream, the time is ripe for doctoral projects in them. “Now is the time to jump in,” implores a passionate Dr. McNamara.
Speaking of passion, Dr. McNamara believes that it’s the key to successful doctoral projects.
“Students today are balancing so many things in their lives that you really need passion to carry it through if you personally want a Ph.D. and to contribute to the field. People will be telling you to shelve it, so you really need unwavering passion to succeed,” he explains. “There are a million reasons not to finish your dissertation – my kid needs braces or I just lost my job; etc. However if you expect there’s going to be challenges and crisis, you can get through it and finish.”
