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 leading research Institute under the Department of Atomic Energy of the Government of India. It is a public deemed university located at Navy Nagar, Colaba in Mumbai. It also has a centres in ...

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

. She completed her schooling from Lady Irwin School,

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

. 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 number 1 for consecutively seven years (as of 2023). History Miranda ...

, Delhi, and obtained her Master's degree from

Delhi University The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...

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 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; it occupies in North Carolina and hosts more than 300 companies and 65,000 workers. It is owned and managed by the Research Triangle Foundation, a private non-profi ...

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 university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

. 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. 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 List of Nobel laureates, Nobel Laureate Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, C. V. Raman, and was registered as a society on 27 April 1934. Inaugurated on 31 July 1934, it ...

, 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 New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three b ...

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 Miranda House alumni {{India-academic-bio-stub