Professor John (Seán) Sheridan
1964 - 2022
Prof. John (Seán) Sheridan was born in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland. From a young age, he knew he wanted to work in science. He received his Bachelors degree in Electronic Engineering from University College Galway in 1985 and earned his Masters degree with Prof. Bill Rhodes at Georgia Tech in 1986. He received his DPhil from the University of Oxford in 1991, where he had fulfilled a dream by working with Prof. Colin Sheppard and Prof. Laszlo Solymar, author of the textbook that had sparked his interest in electromagnetics and materials as an undergraduate. He held postdoctoral fellowships, supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the European Community, at the Lehrstuhl fur Angewandte Optik in Erlangen-Nürnberg University, Germany, and in 1994 became a visiting scientist at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, Italy. He returned to Ireland in 1997 as a permanent lecturer in the School of Physics, DIT.
Seán joined UCD in 2000 as a College Lecturer, was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2005 and Professor of Optical Engineering in 2007. He served as Vice-Principal for Research, Innovation and Impact of UCD’s College of Engineering and Architecture from 2019 to 2021, and as Head of the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering since September 2021. He was an outstanding researcher, inventor and educator. For his ground-breaking contributions to optics, he was made a Fellow of SPIE (the International Optical Engineering Society) in 2014, the Optical Society of America (now Optica) in 2016 and the Institute of Mathematics & Applications in 2018. He also worked with industry and founded several companies, including Equilume, which develops bio-optimized lighting for horses. As a passionate educator, he took a great interest in his students and their welfare, supervising over twenty doctoral students, founding and advising the SPIE and Optica Student Chapters in UCD, and teaching electromagnetics and optical engineering to generations of undergraduate engineers.
| Name | Your Message |
|---|---|
| Vikram Pakrashi | An amazing human being. He will be missed a lot. |
| Pezhman Ghadimi | I cannot express my sadness by words. You will be missed Sean but remembered all the time by your smiles and warm attitude. My condolences to Sean's wife and son and every body who loved him. |
| Anton van Beek | Seán was always a happy sight in the engineering building and will be deeply missed. I am wishing his relatives peace during this time of mourning. |
| Clare Ryan | My deepest sympathy to John's family. He was a true gentleman who cared deeply about the students at UCD and who always brought such energy to his work. I will remember his jovial spirit and witty emails with fondness. May he rest in peace. |
| Barry Cardiff | A life cut off far too soon - had so much to offer and was truly a wonderful colleague and friend |
| Neal Murphy | You were a legend Sean. We will all miss you terribly. |
| Eamonn Ahearne | Sincere condolences to Sean's family and friends. Sean was a gentleman of great character. He went out of the way to support colleagues in UCD even those in other Schools, often offering praise and encouragement when least expected. He would always great you and light up your day with some fun remark. He will truly be sadly missed. Rest in peace Sean. |
| Denis Dowling | My heartfelt condolences on the loss of Séan, he was a wonderful colleague. He always had a ready smile, a witty comment and was interested on how everyone was getting on. He will really be missed. May he rest in peace. |
| Eoin Syron | My deepest sympathies to Sean's Family and Friends. Sean, your Mug of tea will be missed from the staff room. We will continue to fly a green and red flag and hope. Ar a déis Dé go raibh a anim |
| Deepu John | Will deeply miss you, Sean. Rest in peace! |
| Terence O'Donnell | My sincere condolences to the Sheridan family at this difficult time. I had the great pleasure to get to know Sean better during his time as Head of School. His humour, approachability and willingness to help were invaluable. He always kept the welfare of the students front and centre. He will be sorely missed. |
| Aqeel Farooq | A week or two ago, he appears in our TA module class and I found him to be an excellent professional. He gave us some good piece of advise and entertain us with jokes as well. This is sadly a great loss not for the UCD but also for all over the academia. |
| Kevin Nolan | When I joined UCD four years ago Seán made me feel so welcome with his kindness and incredible sense of humour. A chat with him would be a highlight of my day. I have many fond memories of him telling us all hilarious stories in the common room over a cup of tea. We both shared a love of Schlieren imaging and often talked about potential projects. It was a shock to hear of his untimely passing. He will be deeply missed and never forgotten. Please accept my deepest condolences. Kevin |
| Alojz Ivankovic | You were the kindest and nicest person I knew in UCD. I will miss our kidney stone stories a lot. Goodbye chief and rest in peace. |
| Pierre Aumjaud | My sincere condolences to the family |
| Brian Vohnsen | I am deeply saddened to have lost a friend and colleague. We shared a passion for optics and optical engineering and both enjoyed a healthy laugh with students and colleagues. You made UCD a better place. Rest in peace dear Sean. |
| Bob | I will miss you so much John. You brought light to every day, and the highlight of my day was meeting and speaking to you. Rest in peace my friend. My deepest condolences to your family. |
| Inmaculada Pascual and Augusto Beléndez (University of Alicante, Spain) | We are deeply saddened by the news of Professor Sheridan's passing. He was a great collaborator with our Holography Research Group at the University of Alicante (Spain). Always ready to begin a new project. We will miss him a lot, he was a wonderful man. Words cannot describe what we are feeling. Our deepest condolences to his family and UCD. |
| Amanda Gibney | I am deeply sorry to hear about Seán's death, and I send my sincere sympathies to Sean's wife Jutta, his son Daniel, and all his family. Seán was totally dedicated to students and faculty at UCD, and to the profession of engineering. He always had a cheerful word, or a quip, and was always ready to lend a helping hand to a colleague. He will be very sadly missed by all of his colleagues in the College of Engineering and Architecture. He has left us far too soon. |
| Simon Kelly | Sean was a brilliant and wonderful person who brightened the lives of many who had the fortune to work with him. His absence will be deeply felt in UCD. I will greatly miss his caring mentorship, wisdom and humour. My thoughts are with Jutta, Daniel, and all of Sean's family. |
| Jessica Whelan | Sean will be very much missed. His laugh and smile brightened the common room. Condolences to his family at such a sad loss. |
| James O'Donnell | Sean, you were a great colleague and will be sorely missed. My thoughts are with your family at this time. |
| Stephen Redmond | Seán, you brought fun, laughter, and passion to UCD. You were a great colleague. You'll be greatly missed. Up Mayo! |
| Paul Curran | There is a huge hole in the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and in the Engineering Building. I will miss him every day. |
| Andrew Keane | Seán was a wonderful colleague and friend. He was passionate about his work, the School and most of all the students. A frequent remark from Seán was, "We have to look after the students". He was absolutely correct and an important role model for many colleagues in this respect. Seán will be greatly missed by the School and many colleagues across UCD and the world in the field of Optical Engineering. My deepest condolences to Jutta, Daniel and Seán's family. It was always clear how much Seán loved and cherished his family. |
| Ravi Thampi | My heartfelt condolences to the bereaving family and his close friends. Sean was an easy-going cheerful friend and colleague to me, and I and my wife will surely miss him. His sudden departure was shocking to us all. We will always remember him as a great soul and cheerful friend. Our prayers are there with his entire family and friends to give the strength needed to overcome this painful grief. RIP. Ravi Thampi |
| Eoin O'Cearbhaill | Seán will be sorely missed in UCD and far beyond. He was someone that all his colleagues admired greatly and a great teacher and mentor to us all |
| Sue Philpott | My deepest sympathy to Jutta, Daniel and to your extended family at this very sad time. Seán was a wonderful colleague and always generous with his time, advice, and a kind word or a joke. He was thoughtful and considerate of all, and I will remember him with great respect and affection. RIP Seán |
| David Hatton | Condolences to John's family, an absolute gentleman and a wonderful person. No matter what John always had time to provide help on any way he could, remember a good few chats on his couch in the office 🙂 |
| Sinead Kerins | Sincere condolences....Sean was such a lovely man. He will be missed. |
| Joseph Keegan | Sincere sympathies to Jutta, Daniel & family, on Sean's sudden passing. Even though I only knew him a couple of months, as a new support staff member of the Engineering & Architecture College, he was always there for me while his humor & straight talking was unique and reassuring. RIP Sean. |
| Henna Kinsella | My sincere condolences to Seán's family at such a sad time. As a new staff member in Engineering, I only met Seán a few times in the corridor and in the common room, but he always greeted me with a warm smile together with a witty comment. RIP. |
| Derek Cassidy | Sean, you were my mentor, tutor, supervisor and PhD direction finder, but most of all you were my Friend and a very dear and close one at that. Your influence, guidance, help and of course the encouragement you gave me to continue my PhD during Covid when I was flat out in work building new ISP and Broadband Networks for a major Telecom Company. You thought me to stop, think, listen and then interrogate the problem I was facing; personal-academic-work. Even though I am a professional Chartered Engineer I am still lost without your guiding hand. But I do know that you are still guiding me today, and believe me, I know you are! You will be forever missed but rest assured you will never be forgotten because you have already given me hope and a desire to succeed. Sean, I thank you for this special gift…. A gift that can only be bestowed by someone as gifted as yourself. I now face a new challenge, but I can go forth knowing that having you as my PhD supervisor will give others the knowledge that I had the MASTER as my Mentor! |
| John Brannigan | Professor Sheridan will be greatly missed from the Heads of Schools meetings, in which he was a passionate advocate for his colleagues and School. |
| Aisling Ní Annaidh | You'll be sadly missed about the building, Chief. Ar dheis Dé go rabh a anam dílis. |
| Denis Flannery | A generous man, an expansive heart. I am so sorry to hear this news. |
| Katie ONeill | John was such a champion of all staff and all students, had time for every query and enthusiasm for everything coupled with a fantastic sense of humour and always a smile or a joke. He is terribly missed around the corridors and his untimely passing is a huge loss to all. My heartfelt condolences to his family. |
| Aoife Gowen | Sincere condolences to Sean's family. He was an exceptional Scientist and colleague. His sense of humor brightened up even the most mundane of meetings. He was always extremely generous with his time, offering support and guidance to early stage researchers in the College of Engineering and Architecture. He will be remembered fondly by all lucky enough to have worked with him. |
| Derek Cassidy | Always remembered, never forgotten and always in my memory, thoughts and mind...you were and are my FOREVER MENTOR...I will forever miss you... |
| Srinithi Ramprasad | I have been Prof. John Sheridan's student for the Autumn Trimester of 2020 for the Optoelectronics module. He has always been a huge inspiration to me and I am ever grateful to have been under his tutelage. Your presence will be truly missed Sir. |
| Dylan Weldon | |
| Aoife Ahern | My sincere condolences to Sean's family and colleagues. He will be much missed in UCD Engineering. |
| Majella Henchion | I met Sean through the Engineering Graduates Association. He was always a positive, active and enthusiastic supporter of our efforts. We shared a keen interest in promoting the engineering profession. His passion for his area of expertise and for giving his students every possible support and encouragement was admirable. He is sorely missed. |
| Thomas Baldwin | Prof. Sheridan was such a kind, humorous, and all-around excellent gentleman. It was a privilege to get to know him as an intern at UCD this past summer, and I learned countless important lessons from the man. My heart goes out to his family and all others affected by his passing. His memory will live on beautifully! |
| Matthew Sheridan | My sincere condolences to Sean's family and colleagues. He will be sorely missed by everyone who knew him. |