Rate My Professor Stephen Sweeney

Professor Sweeney's research specializations include developing new semiconductors for photonic devices such as lasers and photovoltaics, as well as photonic systems for communications, lighting, energy, biosciences, health, and space-based photonics, with a focus on near- and mid-infrared laser technologies for high-efficiency optical communications, sensing, metrology, and photonic integration. He received a prestigious EPSRC Leadership Fellowship. Sweeney is Chief Technology Officer for UK photonics start-up Zinir Ltd and has sat on editorial boards of IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics and Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics, while guest editing IET Optoelectronics, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, and IOP Semiconductor Science and Technology. He serves on committees including the EPSRC III-V National Centre Steering Committee and advises funding agencies such as the EU, US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation, Singapore Research Agency, Enterprise Ireland, Leibnitz Foundation, and FWO Belgium. He has chaired conferences in semiconductors and photonics and was President of the Physics and Astronomy section of the British Science Association in 2015. Sweeney is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Fellow of SPIE. Key publications include 'The physics of bismide-based lasers' (2019), 'The physics of mid-infrared semiconductor materials and heterostructures' (2019), 'Exploring high efficiency PCSELs using probabilistic Markov chain model' (2026), and 'Mid-infrared InAs/InP quantum-dot lasers' (2026).