Patrick O’Shea has been appointed Deputy Vice President for Research at the University of Maryland College Park. In this new leadership role within the Division of Research, he will oversee the university’s research compliance program and advise and assist the Vice President for Research on special projects spanning the research enterprise.
“I am pleased to announce Pat’s appointment to this new and important role,” said Vice President for Research Gregory F. Ball. “Being one of the architects of many of our interdisciplinary programs, including our MPower strategic partnership with the University of Maryland Baltimore, his broad familiarity with research operations will be an essential asset to help ensure that our Division of Research is responsive and supportive of faculty, staff, and students.”
In this new position, O’Shea will be responsible for ensuring that all policies, processes, and procedures align with evolving regulations and guidelines. In conjunction with Associate Vice President for Research Administration Denise Clark, the Deputy Vice President for Research will provide leadership and operational oversight for research compliance offices, such as the Disclosure Office (including Individual, Institutional, and Organizational Conflicts of Interest), Research Security Office, Office of Research Transparency and Outreach, Institutional Review Board, and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee.
O’Shea has previously served as President of University College Cork in Ireland, Vice President for Research and Chief Research Officer of the University of Maryland, Chair of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering, and Director of the Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics at the University of Maryland. Before that, he was a faculty member in the Department of Physics at Duke University and Project Leader at the University of California Los Alamos National Laboratory.
O’Shea received his bachelor’s degree in physics from University College Cork, and his master’s and PhD in physics from the University of Maryland. His research expertise is in electromagnetics, and he is best known for his work on particle accelerators and free-electron lasers. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the Irish Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. He has also been honored as a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher of the University of Maryland and as President Emeritus of University College Cork.