John O'Sullivan

John O’Sullivan MSc, BE, BSc (Hons), Dip PM, CEng FIEI, PMP, FSP, CMSE® has over 25 years’ experience in the automation and control sector delivering solutions to the pharmaceutical and medical device industry in Ireland. He is the Managing Director of Douglas Control and Automation in Cork, Ireland.

He has an engineering degree in Electrical Engineering from University College Cork, a science degree in Astronomy and Planetary Science from the Open University and a Diploma in Project Management from the Cork Institute of Technology. He is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of Engineers Ireland and a Project Management Professional with the Project Management Institute. He is a Functional Safety Professional and Certified Machine Safety Expert, both certified by TÜV. He has completed a Masters in management at the Smurfit Business School at University College Dublin and is currently conducting Doctoral research in Management Information Systems at UCC's Cork University Business School. His area of research is automation projects in the pharmaceutical manufacturing sector.

He has always had a fascination with aviation and space, leading him to gain his Private Pilot Licence in 2003 and to study astronomy.

He lectures in Automation at the Munster Technological University in Cork and has written articles for Engineers Ireland’s Engineers Journal and British Interplanetary Society’s Spaceflight magazine.

He was an unsuccessful candidate for the ESA Astronaut Corps in 2008. He lives in East Cork, Ireland.

His first book, covering early European missions to the International Space Station was published by Springer-Praxis in 2016. His second book, Japanese Missions to the International Space Station, Hope from the East, was published in 2018. His third book, European Missions to the International Space Station: 2013 to 2019 brings the European story up to date.

October 2022,

Cork.