A scholarship fund has been established in memory of Sharon Gray, 31, a UC Davis plant biology researcher who was killed last week during protests in Ethiopia.
A GoFundMe page, www.gofundme.com/sharonbethgray, was created by her husband, Cody Markelz, also a postdoctoral researcher in plant biology at UCD. The fund will be dedicated to supporting women in science.
As of Saturday evening, nearly $30,000 had been donated toward a goal of $200,000.
Sharon Gray, 31, was a UC Davis postdoctoral researcher in plant biology. Courtesy photo
The U.S. Embassy attributed Gray’s death to head injuries from a rock thrown by “unknown individuals,” as the vehicle she was riding in was stoned by protesters, The Associated Press reported Thursday.
Gray is the first foreigner killed in the protests that have claimed the lives of hundreds of protesters since November 2015, the AP reported. She reportedly was traveling in a car in the outskirts of the capital, an area that has seen months of deadly protests.
Gray and UCD associate professor Siobhan Brady, also a plant biologist, were in Ethiopia to start preliminary work on a project with a Netherlands-based organization, university officials said. Brady was unhurt and returned home safely.
Brady said in a statement that Gray worked in her lab for the past three years.
“We … were co-investigators in a project with the Netherlands Institute of Ecology as principal investigator and which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,” she said. “Our kickoff meeting was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, where she passed away.”
Savithramma Dinesh-Kumar, chair of the UCD plant biology department, said Gray “was working on trying to understand how plants are able to cope with stress, especially how they can deal with increased carbon dioxide, increased drought and climate change.”
Brady called Gray a “true expert in her field of root development and plant physiology. She had a very bright future ahead of her, and I was sure she was to be a leader in plant biology and a wonderful mentor.” Read more here
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