A self-cooling ferrofluid seal includes a housing having a housing case and an external pole piece integrally connected to the housing case where the housing case has a plurality of heat dissipating surfaces, a magnetic circuit within the housing formed in conjunction with the external pole piece, a rotatable shaft having one or more fan blades where the rotatable shaft is coaxially aligned within the housing, and a quantity of magnetic fluid between the rotatable shaft and the external pole piece forming a ferrofluid seal.