Nansie S. Sharpless

Nansie S. Sharpless (October 11, 1932 – October 9, 1987) was an American biochemist. She was an associate professor of psychiatry and neurology and Chief of the Clinical Neuropsychopharmacology Laboratory at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Deaf from the age of fourteen, Sharpless encouraged deaf people to consider careers in scientific research. She also served as the president of the Foundation for Science and the Handicapped.

Early life and education

Nansie Sue Sharpless was born October 11, 1932, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Her father was a biochemist and as a child she gravitated towards studying science and mathematics. At age fourteen, she lost her hearing due to meningitis.

Sharpless attended Oberlin College, graduating with a degree in zoology in 1954. Sharpless graduated with her Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1970 with a perfect 4.0 grade point average.

Career

After graduating with her master's degree in medical technology in 1956, Sharpless worked for eleven years as a research medical technologist, publishing papers on immunochemistry and protein chemistry and working her way up to supervise several technicians. She was in that role and a member of the faculty until her death in 1987. Sharpless authored over fifty research articles and eleven book chapters on the measurement of neurotransmitters, metabolism and mental disorders, and using animal models of neurological disorders. She served as president of the Foundation for Science and the Handicapped. She was also a board member for the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Sharpless encouraged deaf people to consider scientific research as a career in a paper presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in 1975.

Wayne State University recognized her with their Distinguished Alumni Award in 1980.

Sharpless died October 9, 1987, in New York City.