Professor Daniel P. Sheehan

Daniel P. Sheehan, Ph.D. is Professor of Physics at University of San Diego.
 
Daniel has a number of research interests including exotic plasmas (dusty and negative ion types), nonlinear fluid mechanisms for planet formation, sports physics, nanotechnology, chemical catalysts, and the physics of retrocausation (the proposition that the future can influence the past). Over the last two decades he has investigated theoretical and experimental challenges to the second law of thermodynamics. He coauthored the first mainstream scientific treatise on second law challenges and organized the first international conferences on the subject. He is a fan of the philosophers of science Kuhn and especially Feyerabend who believes that, when it comes to scientific discovery, “Anything goes!”
 
He has coauthored and edited several books and conference proceedings including Quantum Limits to the Second Law: First International Conference on Quantum Limits to the Second Law, San Diego, California, 28–31 July 2002 (AIP Conference Proceedings), Challenges to the Second Law of Thermodynamics: Theory and Experiment, and Frontiers of Time: Retrocausation — Experiment and Theory.
 
His papers include Energy Emission by Quantum Systems in an Expanding FRW Metric, The Second Law Mystique, and A note on the use of dust plasma crystals as tunable THz filters.
 
Daniel earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Santa Clara University in 1981 and his Ph.D. in Physics from UC Irvine in 1987. He is a member of the American Physical Society, Sigma Xi, and Phi Beta Kappa.
 
Watch SSE Talks – Challenges to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics – Daniel Sheehan. Read Quantum challenge for USD professor: Sheehan probes for weaknesses in a cherished law of physics.