Patrick O’Shea Named New Chair of ECE Department

Professor Patrick O’Shea has been named as the new Chair of the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department at the University of Maryland.

”I am particularly pleased with this appointment,” said Nariman Farvardin, professor and dean of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering. “Dr. O’Shea has an outstanding record of accomplishments both in his scholarly activities and in his classroom teaching and student mentoring. He brings to this position a wealth of administrative experience, a high level of energy and the necessary aspiration to move the department to a higher level of excellence and national distinction.”

An alumnus of the University of Maryland, O’Shea served for four years as Director of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics (IREAP) at Maryland. O’Shea has served as a faculty member of Maryland’s ECE department for six years. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, and a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

O'Shea was born in Cork, Ireland, where he received his secondary education at Coláiste Chríost Rí, and his B.Sc. degree in physics from University College Cork. After gaining his M.S. ('82) and Ph.D. ('86) in physics from the University of Maryland, he conducted his early research at the University of California, Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he worked on the Beam Experiment Aboard Rocket Project and the APEX Free-Electron Laser Project. Later, he continued research at the Duke University Free-Electron Laser Laboratory.

Dr. O'Shea's current research is in the area of charged particle beam technology and applications.

Farvardin said that O’Shea received the unanimous endorsement of the search committee and the overwhelming support of the faculty, staff and students. Dr. O’Shea will begin his duties as Chair on August 23, 2005. He succeeds Professor Steve Marcus, who served as ECE Chair for the last five years.

"I congratulate Pat on his appointment and am confident that he will be very successful and productive in this position," said Marcus. “He knows the Department well and has already been very active and shown leadership as a faculty member.”

During Dr. Marcus' tenure as chair, the department has increased faculty research funding and expenditures, raised the quality of its undergraduate and graduate student populations, hired a significant number of outstanding new faculty, and earned increasing recognition for its academic excellence through faculty awards and national publications. Dr. O'Shea hopes to continue the momentum during his time as department chair.

“I am honored and delighted to have the opportunity to lead the Department into its second century at Maryland,” said O’Shea. “We have established a tradition of excellence in ECE, and I foresee an even brighter future.”

Published June 20, 2005