Dear colleagues across the Insight community,
We are all profoundly shocked and saddened by the death of our dear friend and colleague Kevin. Our love and sympathy goes out to his family at this incredibly difficult time.
In his all too brief career Kevin established himself as a leading authority nationally and internationally in the fields of Computer Vision, Image Processing and Machine Learning. He became widely known as a deep learning “guru” whose guidance was actively sought after by many academic collaborators and undergraduate and postgraduate students. He was unfailingly generous with his time and his expertise and many can directly attribute academic success to his help and guidance.
Kevin was also a wonderful human being, full of fun and humour and a joy to be around in any situation. His passing is a huge loss to DCU, Insight and the entire academic community.
Kevin studied Computer Applications in DCU and then stayed on to complete his doctorate in the School of Electronic Engineering in a research centre that went on to become Insight. He continued his research in Insight as a postdoc, then a Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow before being appointed as an Assistant Professor in the School of Electronic Engineering in DCU, at which point he also became a Funded Investigator in Insight.
Kevin’s impact on the Insight community is hard to measure. His research excellence in the fields of Computer Vision, Image Processing and Machine Learning is a cornerstone of the Insight research mission. The quality of his published outputs, often in some of the most esteemed and competitive venues in computer science, speak to the scientific excellence of his work. He led our involvement in many targeted projects with industry partners large and small as well as in many Enterprise Ireland, SFI, EPA and EU projects. Kevin had a large network of international collaborators and was frequently invited as an expert speaker at high profile international summer schools and workshops. He was always in great demand as a CRT supervisor and led Insight@DCU’s involvement in the VistaMilk SFI Research Centre.
However, it is his commitment to collaboration and supporting others professionally and personally that we will miss the most. Kevin’s collegial spirit enriched his teaching, his research and all his interactions in Insight. Kevin leaves a significant research legacy that will continue to impact his field and to help and enlighten other researchers and students, as he has always done.
