Phillip A. Sharp

Phillip A. Sharp's interview begins with a discussion of his family. He details his genealogy, from his great grandparents to his current extended family. Sharp then discusses his childhood in Falmouth, Kentucky, near Cincinnati, Ohio. After graduating from Falmouth High School, Sharp attended Union College, where he met his wife, Ann Holcombe. He received his B.A. in chemistry and math from Union College in 1966. Then, Sharp went on to earn his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Illinois. Sharp went to Caltech initially for his post-doctoral studies, but after three years he joined James Watson's virology lab at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to learn more about cell biology research. In 1974, Sharp accepted an invitation to join the research team at the newly created Center for Cancer Research at MIT. In 1977, Sharp and Richard J. Roberts discovered split genes, which led to the discovery of RNA splicing. This was a significant discovery for which Sharp and Roberts shared the Nobel Prize in 1993. Phillip Sharp worked his way up through the ranks of MIT's administration, eventually becoming head of the biology department and director of the Center for Cancer Research. Moreover, Sharp was instrumental in the establishment of one of the first biotech companies, Genentech, Inc. He also worked with a team of researchers to establish Biogen, Inc. In 2000, Sharp became the director of the McGovern Institute for Brain Research. Sharp concludes the interview with reflections on his rapid rise through MIT's administration and the significance of the neuroscience research community that currently surrounds and includes Harvard University.

University of Illinois

1966 - 1969 Research Assistant, Department of Chemistry

California Institute of Technology

1969 - 1971 Postdoctoral Fellow

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

1971 - 1972 Postdoctoral Fellow

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

1972 - 1974 Senior Research Investigator

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1974 - 1979 Associate Professor, Center for Cancer Research and Department of Biology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1979 - 1999 Professor, Center for Cancer Research and Department of Biology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1982 - 1985 Associate Director, Center for Cancer Research

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1985 - 1991 Director, Center for Cancer Research

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1991 - 1999 Head, Department of Biology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1991 - 1999 Salvador E. Luria Professor of Biology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

1999 - Present Institute Professor

The McGovern Institute for Brain Research

2000 - Present Director

David C. Brock

David C. Brock is a senior research fellow with the Center for Contemporary History and Policy at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. As a historian of science and technology, he specializes in the history of semiconductor science, technology, and industry; the history of instrumentation; and oral history. Brock has studied the philosophy, sociology, and history of science at Brown University, the University of Edinburgh, and Princeton University.

In the policy arena Brock recently published Patterning the World: The Rise of Chemically Amplified Photoresists, a white-paper case study for the Center’s Studies in Materials Innovation. With Hyungsub Choi he is preparing an analysis of semiconductor technology roadmapping, having presented preliminary results at the 2009 meeting of the Industry Studies Association.

Arnold Thackray

Arnold Thackray founded the Chemical Heritage Foundation and served the organization as president for 25 years. He is currently CHF’s chancellor. Thackray received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history of science from Cambridge University. He has held appointments at Cambridge, Oxford University, and Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In 1983 Thackray received the Dexter Award from the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to the history of chemistry. He served for more than a quarter century on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the founding chairman of the Department of History and Sociology of Science and is currently the Joseph Priestley Professor Emeritus.

Mona Ashiya

Mona Ashiya is currently a research associate at Harvard Business School and an independent consultant. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1998. Since then, she has held research positions at UC Berkeley, Pittsburgh, and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute of Harvard University, during which time she was awarded the Leukemia Research Foundation Fellowship.