Academic and clinical career - Graduated from Trinity College, Dublin in 1908 - Received a masters degree in dental science in 1909 - Undertook specialist orthodontic studies under Edward Angle in the United States - Established the first orthodontic practice in Dublin, the first in the British Isles - Appointed as Lecturer in Orthodontics at Trinity in 1910 - Received a Doctor of Science degree in 1928 - Became the first professor of orthodontics in Europe in 1941 - Pioneered the use of stainless steel for orthodontic devices - Conducted research on muscle testing and training, jaw size and form, tooth migration, and occlusion

Professional societies - Founder member of the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics - Served as president of the society in 1924 - President of the Irish Dental Association in 1932 - President of the European Orthodontic Society from 1935 to 1937 - President of the Odontological Section of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1949 - Advocated for the specialization of orthodontics in Britain - Campaigned for greater professionalization of orthodontics - Encouraged non-specialist dentists to refer orthodontic cases to specialists

Awards and fellowships - Awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 1948 - Awarded Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1951 - Received the Villain Prize in orthodontics from the Fédération Dentaire Internationale in 1957 - Became the first person outside North America to receive the Ketcham Award from the American Board of Orthodontics in 1960 - Elected an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 1962

Legacy - Three years after Friel's death, his family provided funding for the annual Sheldon Friel Memorial Lecture by the European Orthodontic Society - Friel's contributions to orthodontics and his pioneering use of stainless steel continue to influence the field - His establishment of the first orthodontic practice in Dublin paved the way for the development of orthodontics in the British Isles

References - Lee, John B. (1972). The history of the Irish Dental Association, 1922–1972. - Wahl, Norman (2005). Orthodontics in 3 millennia. Chapter 4: The professionalization of orthodontics (concluded). - Obituary. The Journal of the Irish Dental Association. 16: 43. 1970. - Taylor, Geoffrey Stuart; Malcolm Nicolson (July 2007). The Emergence of Orthodontics as a Specialty in Britain: The Role of the British Society for the Study of Orthodontics. - Lee, John B.; Niall J. Hogan (1992). The evolution of a profession and of its dental school in Dublin. Atrium Productions.