In 2017, Professor Patrick O’Shea became the 15th President of University College Cork, and in 2018 he became Chair of the Irish Universities Association. Sensing renewed optimism and opportunity, he returned to Ireland following a three-decade career in the United States where his most recent leadership appointment was as Vice President and Chief Research Officer of the University of Maryland near Washington DC.

Previously, Professor O'Shea served as Chair of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, and Director of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, at the University of Maryland. He played a leading role in the founding of the Maryland Nano Centre and the Maryland Cyber Security Centre. He also served as a project leader at the University of California Los Alamos National Laboratory, and as a faculty member at Duke University.

At UCC, he and his team are committed to an ambitious agenda of excellence as documented in their 2017 Strategic Plan: Independent Thinking, Shared Ambition.
Universities are places where modern societies build capacity and talent to tackle the uncertainties and opportunities of the future. Therefore, he is a firm believer that the modern university must embrace a connected curriculum in which education, creative scholarship, research and impact on society and the economy are intimately related.
Professor O’Shea’s scholarly and research expertise lies in creating light where there is darkness in the spectrum using free electron lasers. For his accomplishments in science, engineering and education, he has been elected to Fellowships in the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Physical Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and Irish Academy of Engineering. His interests include history, linguistics, athletics, and cycling.