Dr Sean Whelan

Sean obtained his BSc in applied physics (1996) and PhD in physics (2000) from the University of Salford. 

His early-stage research career was based within academia, and he was an embedded researcher at CNR-IMM (Sicily, Italy) from 2000-2002, and a research associate at the University of Cambridge (in both Engineering and Physics depts.) from 2002-2006. Research was focussed upon ion implantation of silicon for doping ultra-shallow layers, laser annealing of silicon for dopant activation and implant isolation in compound semiconductors. 

He then worked at an innovation centre of excellence (CDT, Cambridge Display technology) from 2006 where he was involved in the process development of organic LED’s (OLED) for commercialisation, and organic photodiodes (OPD) operating in the near infra-red wavelength range. He was directly involved with the technology transfer project (fabrication and testing) to the parent company in Japan (Sumitomo Chemical). 

Sean successfully designed and led projects to enable commercialisation of products developed in house. Again, this involved technology transfer to a tier 1 customer, as well as generating company critical “know how” for process development. Such “product development” projects included flexible OLED integrated into a human machine interface, flexible OLED integrated into an NFC application and a combined OLED – OPD technology for lateral flow readers. 

He has practical experience of working in a cleanroom and performing the common semiconductor processing techniques such as lithography, thin film deposition (vacuum, solution processing - spin coating, ink jet printing etc.) and etching and metallisation, as well as a strong knowledge of encapsulation techniques. In addition to material modification, he has an excellent background in material characterisation including ion scattering, ion sputtering as well as electrical and optical measurements. 

Sean currently work at the University of Cambridge in an “academic related” role as the divisional Safety and Experimental Manager.

He has responsibility for health and safety within the workplace, providing technical leadership and promoting best practice procedures in experimental research and teaching. He manages safety for 60 research labs, X3 cleanrooms and ~300 people that include research students, academics and external users. 

Sean's work involves regular laboratory inspections, workplace inductions, ensuring relevant, specific safety training is provided and maintained. He provides toolbox talks to research groups, facilitating coherent communication on relevant safety matters. 

He trains researchers on how to complete a risk assessment, and is also responsible for ensuring risk assessments are completed at a suitable and sufficient level. He also provide toolbox talks at group meetings and provide feedback on “lessons learned” from recent incidents.