Daniel Moriarity is a doctoral student in the Clinical Psychology program with a concentration in quantitative methods. He works in the Mood and Cognition Lab, under the guidance of Dr. Lauren Alloy. This lab studies the cognitive, psychosocial, developmental, and neurobiological factors which impact the onset and maintenance of mood disorders. More specifically, Daniel investigates an immunocognitive model of mood disorders, evaluating if cognitive vulnerabilities amplify risk for heightened inflammatory physiology in ways that confer risk for mood symptoms. He is also interested in examining psychiatric comorbidity, both in terms of how the presence of one disorder might increase risk for another as well as investigating what symptom overlap can tell us about how to improve classification of psychiatric disorders. When creating research studies, Daniel prefers to design studies that also have methodological implications, such as testing ideal time-lags to observe an effect. His favorite methodological question to evaluate includes whether looking at specific symptoms, rather than diagnostic cases or sum scores, has the potential to provide more replicable and insightful analyses of behavior.

Daniel was the recipient of the 2019 Weinstein Award, which is funded through the generous support of Stephen and Rosalyn Weinstein of the Civic Foundation, who focus their research and advocacy on initiatives related to drug and alcohol addiction. Receiving this award allowed Daniel to present at conferences in Buffalo and Atlanta, in addition to helping fund approximately 50 blood assays for his dissertation research. He stated that presenting his research to the Weinsteins and the Department of Psychology was critical to his professional development and has been one of his favorite experiences as a graduate student. Upon earning his doctoral degree, Daniel plans to continue investigating the interplay between immunology and cognitive vulnerabilities in psychiatric etiology using transdiagnostic approaches.