chemistry

Paul M. Sharp

Paul M. Sharp is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Paul M. Sharp rather than just read about it. In short: Paul Martin Sharp (born 1957) is a British bioinformatician who is a professor of genetics at the University of Edinburgh, where he holds the Alan Robertson chair of genetics in the Institute of Evolutionary Biology. Education Sharp was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979 followed by a PhD in 1982 for research using quantitative genetics on the fruit fly…

Key takeaways

Paul M. Sharp belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Paul M. Sharp to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Paul M. Sharp from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Paul Martin Sharp (born 1957) is a British bioinformatician who is a professor of genetics at the University of Edinburgh, where he holds the Alan Robertson chair of genetics in the Institute of Evolutionary Biology.

Education Sharp was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1979 followed by a PhD in 1982 for research using quantitative genetics on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster supervised by Alan Robertson.

Career and research Sharp has held academic posts at Trinity College, Dublin from 1982 to 1993, the University of Nottingham from 1993 to 2007 and was appointed Professor at the University of Edinburgh in 2007. Sharp's research investigates the evolutionary origin of bacteria and viruses. He has carried out important work into the origin of HIV and its transmission from chimpanzees to humans. He also discovered that the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium, originated in gorillas. He was one of the first researchers to use DNA sequence databases to gain insight into evolutionary processes. His work amplifying DNA from chimpanzee faecal samples showed that HIV type 1 was transmitted to humans from a specific chimp population in West Africa in the early 20th century. Paul went on to examine his collection of ape faecal samples for plasmodium parasites, finding a likely candidate for the form that causes malaria in humans. In the eighties, Sharp collaborated with Desmond G. Higgins during the creation of CLUSTAL, a suite of multiple sequence alignment programs that have become widely used and highly influential. His research has been funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). His former doctoral students include Kenneth H. Wolfe.

Awards and honours Sharp was elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) in 1992, and was President of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. He was elected member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1993, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) in 2010 and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2013. In 2024 Sharp was awarded The Darwin Medal for his work addressing the origins and evolution of HIV and the malaria parasite Plasmodium.

Personal life Sharps's entry in Who's Who lists his recreations as hill walking, pteridology and, since 1967, supporting Nottingham Forest Football Club.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Paul M. Sharp

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Paul M. Sharp claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Paul M. Sharp before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Paul M. Sharp ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Paul M. Sharp

In research: Paul M. Sharp appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Paul M. Sharp in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Paul M. Sharp is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1957 births, Alumni of the University of Edinburgh, British bioinformaticians, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Paul M. Sharp outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Paul M. Sharp in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Paul M. Sharp means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Paul M. Sharp out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Paul M. Sharp in simple terms?

Why does Paul M. Sharp matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Paul M. Sharp?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Paul M. Sharp.