Kirkpatrick was born in Columbus, Georgia to an Army family.[7][8] He studied physics at the University of Georgia, where he received his BS in 1991 and Ph.D. in 1995 under the supervision of William Dennis. His doctoral research was focused on nonlinear and nonequilibrium phonon dynamics of rare earth doped fluoride crystals.[9]
Between 2012 and 2016, he served as the Defense Intelligence Officer for Scientific and Technical Intelligence for the Defense Intelligence Agency.[7][8]
In March 2023, Kirkpatrick and Avi Loeb released a manuscript on the physical constraints of hypothetical alien spaceships existing in the solar system.[12][13] The unfinished draft by Kirkpatrick and Loeb included a consideration of the idea that UAPs, "which appear to defy all physics, could be 'probes' from an extraterrestrial 'parent craft'".[14]
In the first public meeting of NASA's UAP independent study team on May 31, 2023, Kirkpatrick was invited to give the opening remarks.[17] Kirkpatrick thanked NASA for bringing additional expertise to the task of UAP data collection and analysis. In answer to later questions, he noted that U.S. military personnel are observing "metallic orbs" in many locations "all over the world", that spherical objects account for the largest proportion — nearly half — of all UAP reports received by his office, and that some of these objects are capable of "very interesting apparent maneuvers".[18]
Following the July 26, 2023 Congressional UAP hearing that included testimony from David Grusch, Kirkpatrick wrote that, "contrary to assertions made in the hearing", Grusch "has refused to speak with AARO" so that some details said to have been given to Congress had not been provided to his office and also that the hearing was "insulting ...to the officers of the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community who chose to join AARO, many with not unreasonable anxieties about the career risks this would entail".[19][20]
On November 7, 2023, it was reported that Kirkpatrick will step down as the director of AARO effective December 2023.[21] Since December 2023, Kirkpatrick joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory as the Chief Technology Officer for defense and intelligence programs.[22]
In January 2024, Kirkpatrick published an op-ed in Scientific American, stating that he had found no evidence of aliens as director of AARO, and that the allegations of a coverup of UFOs by the US government "derive from inadvertent or unauthorized disclosures of legitimate U.S. programs or related R&D that have nothing to do with extraterrestrial issues or technology. Some are misrepresentations, and some derive from pure, unsupported beliefs. In many respects, the narrative is a textbook example of circular reporting, with each person relaying what they heard, but the information often ultimately being sourced to the same small group of individuals." describing these individuals as “a small group of interconnected believers and others with possibly less than honest intentions.” who promote a “whirlwind of tall tales, fabrication and secondhand or thirdhand retellings".[23]
In 2010, the University of Georgia Department of Physics & Astronomy created a Sean M. Kirkpatrick award for outstanding graduate research in his honor that is given annually to a graduate student for their research work.[24]
