Sharon B. Murphy, MD, a pediatric oncologist and clinical cancer researcher who was a longtime AACR member, died November 4, 2023, at the age of 80.
She earned her bachelor’s degree in science from the University of Wisconsin in 1965 and her medical degree, cum laude, from Harvard Medical School in 1969. She completed an internship and a residency in pediatrics at the University of Colorado in 1971 and a fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in 1973.
Murphy then joined St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, where she rose to be a full member of the faculty and a professor at the University of Tennessee. In 1988, she became chief of hematology and oncology at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago (now Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital) and professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University. She was also co-leader of the pediatric research program at Northwestern’s Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center.
In 1993, she was elected chair of the Pediatric Oncology Group, a position she held until 2001.
In 2002, Murphy became the inaugural director of what is now the Greehey Children’s Cancer Research Institute and professor of pediatrics at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. In 2008, she moved to the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) in Washington, DC, as a scholar in residence.
She was an AACR member since 1976 and participated in the Women in Cancer Research group since 1995.
Honors for Murphy included the Distinguished Career Award from the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology in 2009.
Leave your remembrance of Dr. Murphy below (limit 1,000 characters).
Be the first to add a Remembrance.