Sonya Vanni
Executive Assistant to the Dean
About Dr. Heather Sheardown
Dr. Heather Sheardown is Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and professor of chemical engineering at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont.
Sheardown is also the scientific director of C20/20, an incubator for biomedical technologies, and a Canada Research Chair in Ophthalmic Biomaterials and Drug Delivery.
An accomplished researcher, Sheardown runs a large and vibrant research group with more than 10 post-doctoral fellows and graduate students. Her leadership of C20/20, an incubator aimed at the commercialization of ophthalmic biotechnologies, has led to three separate spin-off companies. She is also a strong champion of student success.
Sheardown joined McMaster in 1998 and has since taken on successive roles at the institution including as a member of the University Planning Committee and chair of the Budget Committee. She has been involved with the CEAB through the development of curricula for programs and was previously a member of the Professional Engineers Ontario Academic Requirements Committee.
She obtained her PhD from the University of Toronto in 1995 and her BEng from McMaster University in 1989.
Awards of Distinction
She is an elected Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), which comprises many of Canada’s most accomplished engineers. She is also a fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering and the International Union of Societies for Biomaterials Science and Engineering. In 2020, she received the Hamilton YWCA Hamilton‘s Women of Distinction award in Science, Technology, and Trades.
Scholarship
Sheardown has an international reputation for her research on ophthalmic biomaterials, including her innovative work on the development of new materials for artificial cornea and ophthalmic drug delivery.
Sheardown has published extensively and holds several peer reviewed grants. She holds numerous patents on materials and drug delivery systems for treating conditions in the eye including several patents in conjunction with companies for the development of specific products and a recently granted patent on mucoadhesive micelles for treatment of dry eye.
In 2021, Sheardown received federal funding to use the patented micelle technology as a vehicle for prophylactic drug delivery to the nose and lung.
Leadership
At McMaster, Sheardown leads a Faculty that is organized into two schools, the student-centred research-focused School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and the student-centred practice-focused Walter G. Booth School of Engineering Practice and Technology (SEPT). With about 160 faculty members in SEAS and 26 in SEPT, McMaster Engineering is home to 185 faculty members who, along with 150 administrative, technical and research staff members, educate 4,800 undergraduate students and about 1,000 graduate students