Steve Sheard

I really enjoy teaching. I have a passion for electronics which started when I bought my first electric guitar a very long time ago.  My favourite subjects include transistor circuits, electromagnetism, electrical machines and energy storage. I also tutor a course taken in the third year on Engineering in Society, which includes sustainability, decision making and engineering finance. Within the Department of Engineering Science, I give lectures on advanced topics in electrical engineering and manufacturing systems to third- and fourth-year undergraduates.  Practical experience is really important, discovering how things work requires experimenting with hardware and software.  I especially enjoy contributing to laboratory teaching in the areas of electronic circuit design and manufacture.

My PhD was in scanning microscopy, concentrating on the imaging of semiconductor materials. I started research on integrated optics when I first came to Oxford, working with major companies in telecommunications developing waveguiding components and fibre-optic systems. I have a special interest in diffractive optics, which I have applied to solving a number of practical problems when integrating different optoelectronic components. I have designed and made surface emitting lasers and optoelectronic devices using diffractive optical elements and have worked with industry to develop novel sensor technology for measurement and monitoring systems.  More recently, I have been working on biomedical devices using magnetic separation as a platform for biosensors. I am a Chartered Electrical Engineer.

You can find out more about my work here.

Grob D.T., Wise N., Oduwole O., Sheard S., ‘Magnetic susceptibility characterisation of superparamagnetic microspheres’, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Volume 452 (2018), 134-140



Oduwole O., Sheard S. (2017), ‘Three-dimensional mathematical modelling of magnetic bead interactions within a magnetic separation system’, Applied Mathematical Modelling, Volume 45 (2017), 123-133



Oduwole O., Grob D.T., Sheard S. (2016), ‘Comparison between simulation and experimentally observed interactions between two magnetic beads in a fluidic system’, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Volume 407, 8-12



Wise N., Grob D.T., Morten K., Thompson I., Sheard S. (2015), ‘Magnetophoretic velocities of superparamagnetic particles, agglomerates and complexes’, Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Volume 384, 328-334



Kwon B.H, Kim H.H., Park J.H., Yoon D.H., Kim M.C., Sheard S.J., Morten K., Go J.Sl, ‘Separation of Different Sized Nanoparticles with Time Using a Rotational Flow’, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. (2013), 52, 6 pages