Shobhona Sharma (born 5 February 1953) is a professor specializing in immunology, molecular biology, and biochemistry at the

Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) is a public deemed research university located in Mumbai, India that is dedicated to basic research in mathematics and the sciences. It is a Deemed University and works under the umbrella of the D ...

, Mumbai. She is also the chairperson of the Department of Biological Sciences. She is a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences and the Indian National Science Academy.

Early life

Shobhona Sharma (née Banerjee) was born to Bengali parents from

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. She completed her schooling from Lady Irwin School,

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. She did her undergraduate study in chemistry at

Miranda House Miranda House is a constituent college for women at the University of Delhi in India. Established in 1948, it is one of the top ranked colleges of the country and ranked as number 1 for consecutively six years (as of 2022). History Miranda ...

, Delhi, and obtained her Master's degree from

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

in 1975. She joined the doctoral program at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. She chose molecular biology as her specialization. During this time Sharma met a fellow doctoral student majoring in solid-state electronics and they subsequently got married.

Career

After completing her Ph.D., Sharma moved to research topics related to Malaria at

New York University Medical Center NYU Langone Health is an academic medical center located in New York City, New York, United States. The health system consists of NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Long Island School of Medicine, both part of New York University (NYU), and m ...

as a post-doctoral fellow. After a while, as her husband was at a job in the

Research Triangle Park Research Triangle Park (RTP) is the largest research park in the United States, occupying in North Carolina and hosting more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. The facility is named for its location relative to the three surrounding cities ...

in North Carolina, Sharma decided to move, and with the help of her adviser she found a research position at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

. After the birth of their daughter, Sharma and her husband moved back to India — she joined TIFR and he joined the

Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay or IITB) is a public research university and technical institute in Powai, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It is considered as one of the best engineering universities in India and is top ranked ...

. In 2003 Sharma was elected as a Fellow of the

Indian Academy of Sciences The Indian Academy of Sciences, Bangalore was founded by Indian Physicist and Nobel Laureate C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 24 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it began with 65 founding fellows. The first general meet ...

, and in 2014 she was elected as Fellow, of the

Indian National Science Academy The Indian National Science Academy (INSA) is a national academy in New Delhi for Indian scientists in all branches of science and technology. In August 2019, Dr. Chandrima Shaha was appointed as the president of Indian National Science Academ ...

Honours and awards

* Fellow,

References

Academic staff of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Indian women molecular biologists Indian molecular biologists Living people Tata Institute of Fundamental Research alumni Indian immunologists 1953 births Scientists from Kolkata 20th-century Indian biologists 20th-century Indian women scientists Bengali scientists Women scientists from West Bengal {{India-academic-bio-stub