Dr Dean Callaghan is currently an engineering lecturer, researcher, and Director of the Engineering Centre of Research and Enterprise (engCORE) at South East Technological University. He received his BEng in Mechanical Engineering from Technological University Dublin in 2007. He completed his PhD in the field of applied optical sensing technology for sensorised surgical instruments at the TU Dublin Photonics Research Centre in 2013. He spent seven years as an Aerospace Engineer with SR Technics before joining TU Dublin as a lecturer in the School of Manufacturing and Design Engineering. He was appointed as a lecturer in the Department of Aerospace, Mechanical, and Electronic Engineering at Institute of Technology Carlow in 2014 and Director of engCORE in 2015. 

Dr Callaghan's research interests are in the interconnected fields of manufacturing processes, materials and embedded sensing technologies with a specific focus on how advanced processes such as Additive Manufacturing and Cold Spray deposition can evolve these fields. Dr Callaghan's previous research work in optical sensing for medical device applications investigated surface mounted optical sensing approaches but with the advent of new and advanced additive manufacturing processes the research focus has evolved to investigate embedded sensing within components for the detection of strain, strain, fatigue, vibration and temperature. The primary methodologies adopted for the majority of this research are quantitative research methods coupled with experimental design.

Dr Callaghan has published 37 book chapters, peer-reviewed journals, and conference papers in the fields of Embedded Optical Sensing in Medical Devices using Additive Manufacturing, Battery Thermal Cooling using PCM, and Cold Spray process enhancement.