John Donegan

Prof. John Donegan is a Funded Investigator at CONNECT Centre and Professor of Physics and Applications of Light at Trinity College Dublin. He is also Deputy Director of the CRANN Nanoscience Centre and collaborates with Professor Wei-Hua Guo from Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

• BSc (1982) and PhD (1986) from University College Galway
• Postdoctoral research at Lehigh University and Max-Planck Institut für Festkörperforschung

Research Focus: Photonic devices, including semiconductor lasers with high-order gratings for single-mode operation and microresonators for soliton comb generation. Current work emphasizes athermalization of lasers for temperature-sensitive environments and optical frequency references for high-precision communications.

Scientific Honors:

• Fellow of Trinity College Dublin
• Fellow of the Institute of Physics
• Senior Member of IEEE and American Physical Society

Collaborations & Grants: Joint project with Huazhong University funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC). Published 350+ papers with Google Scholar h-index of 48 and 14,000+ citations. Holds patent for laser devices in optical communications and heat-assisted magnetic recording.

Labs & Teams: Active with CONNECT Centre and CRANN Nanoscience Centre, focusing on nanoscale photonic devices and dependable networks.