The Tragic Loss of Dr. Sharon Gray
When you ask people what a postdoctoral researcher does, few people have a realistic answer. These are professional scientists with Ph.D. degrees that seek additional training to hone their skills and build a scientific portfolio. They are overworked, underappreciated, and underpaid. They frequently have little to no voice in departmental or university decisions, ironic, because they drive the front edge of the discovery. They are frequently the engines of our laboratories.
They do it because jobs are few and can only be realistically approached with the training, exposure and career development that a good postdoctoral research experience can provide.
This long introduction sets the stage for a tragic tale of Sharon Gray. I never met Sharon. But as an advisor of postdocs and a supporter of developing scientists in our field, I'm shocked by the story of her horrifying and untimely demise.
She was a young professional developing her art, and in the course of expanding her collaborations, horizons and potential, her life was tragically ended.
She was a young professional developing her art, and in the course of expanding her collaborations, horizons and potential, her life was tragically ended.
Tragedy. Sharon Gray killed by protesters in Ethiopia while she was attending a project meeting.
Dr. Gray worked as a postdoc in Plant Biology at UC-Davis. Days ago she was killed by protesters that stoned the vehicle she was riding in during a time of civil unrest outside the city of Addis Ababa. She was heading to a project meeting that involved collaborators from The Netherlands. Details are sketchy and really don't matter. It is simply a paralyzing tragedy for her, her family, her lab, and those she touched with her time and her science.
She was likely still riding high from the publication of her last work, an eight-year study that showed the relationship between increasing carbon dioxide, drought, and soybean growth. The work was just published in Nature Plants. Those are true milestones that define a postdoctoral career.
My heart goes out to those at UC Davis, especially her husband (also a postdoc) and Dr. Siobhan Brady, her advisor, as well as the lab mates that daily shared time and space with Sharon.
As researchers, we form tight-knit families when we constantly bump elbows, share techniques, and spend late nights and weekends unraveling important questions in biology. The years focused on common scientific quests build great bonds between researchers. These bonds are appreciated, understood, and honored by those of us that have been there.
Across the plant science community we understand, and share in the grief of this tragic loss.
The university posted a memorial page along with photos. A memorial fund has been established that will go to enhance opportunities for women in science.
