Rate My Professor Sean Fair

Professor Sean Fair serves as Professor and Head of the Department of Biological Sciences in the Faculty of Science and Engineering at the University of Limerick, where he also holds a professorial appointment in the Bernal Institute. He earned his PhD from University College Dublin in 2006. Following his doctoral studies, Fair was appointed Lecturer in Physiology at the National University of Ireland, Galway in 2007. In 2009, he joined the University of Limerick's academic staff, advancing to Associate Professor in Animal Reproduction and later to his current professorial roles. Fair leads an internationally recognized research group focused on reproductive biology.

Fair's research specializes in assisted reproduction in domestic animals, particularly sperm interactions with the female reproductive tract and its secretions across bovine, equine, ovine, and human models. His investigations employ in vitro and in vivo techniques to explore male-to-male variation in sperm functional parameters and uterine immunological responses, nutritional control of puberty, microfluidic-based sperm selection, and ewe breed differences in cervical function impacting sperm transport. This work has attracted funding from Science Foundation Ireland through the Investigators Programme, the European Union ERA-Net, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Research Stimulus Fund, the Irish Research Council for PhD stipends, Enterprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund, Teagasc Walsh Fellowships, and industry collaborators. He has produced over 100 research outputs, including 'Cervical artificial insemination with frozen-thawed semen in sheep: the secret is in the cervix of Norwegian ewe breeds' (Biology of Reproduction, 2026), 'Spatial differences in the ovine cervical microenvironment at the follicular and luteal phases of the oestrous cycle; Implications for sperm transport' (Theriogenology, 2026), and 'Acrosome-Disrupted Dead Sperm Impact the Function of Live Bovine Spermatozoa After Cryopreservation' (Reproduction in Domestic Animals, 2026). Fair has served as President of the International Congress on Animal Reproduction (2022), Chair of the University of Limerick Animal Welfare Body (2015-2022), and Director of the Association of Applied Animal Andrology (2016-2020). He received the University of Limerick President's Research Excellence and Impact Award in the Advanced category.