Denise Manahan-Vaughan is an Irish neuroscientist and neurophysiologist. She is head of the Department of Neurophysiology, Dean of Studies and Director of the International Graduate School of Neuroscience and co-founder of the Research Department of Neuroscience (founded in 2008) of the Ruhr University Bochum. Her research focuses on elucidation of the cellular and synaptic mechanisms underlying the acquisition and long-term maintenance of associative memories. She uses a multidisciplinary approach to study how spatial experiences, sensory input, neuromodulation, or brain disease impacts on, and provide insight into, the function of the hippocampus in enabling long-term memory.