Professor Sean O’Byrne

Australian National University

Professor Sean O'Byrne is Professor of Aerospace Engineering at The Australian National University (ANU), where he develops advanced laser-based diagnostic and sensing techniques to measure physical properties in high-speed, chemically reacting flows and plasmas. His research supports a wide range of applications, including hypersonic flows and shock waves, combustion, plasmas, and rarefied gas dynamics, enabling more accurate measurements of species concentrations, temperatures, densities and velocities in both laboratory and flight environments. In addition to his research, he teaches the final-year undergraduate course in Aerospace Instrumentation.

Prior to joining ANU in 2023, Professor O'Byrne spent 17 years at UNSW Canberra following research appointments at NASA Langley Research Center and the University of New South Wales. He completed undergraduate degrees in Physics and Education at the University of New England before earning a Master's and PhD in Physics from ANU. An internationally recognised expert in laser-based diagnostics and aerospace engineering, Professor O'Byrne is a senior member of Optica and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, serves as an editor for Shock Waves and Frontiers in Physics, and has supervised 18 PhD students.