professor sharpe’s scientific career got off to a shaky start. as an undergraduate at london university the rugby field and the bar took up rather too much of richard’s time and he was ‘asked to leave’ following some disappointing exam results. but after working in a factory for a year he realized that studying was actually easier, and he returned to university, graduating in 1970. he then moved to bristol university and, unusually for an academic researcher, began his career as a technician, working with philip brown - who had developed bioassays and radioimmunoassays for gonadotropins. philip spotted richard’s talents and became a kind of mentor, encouraging richard to study for his msc. he then joined the medical research council reproductive biology unit (now mrc centre for reproductive health) in edinburgh in 1974 and his research career received a boost in 1976 when one of his first research papers was published in the journal nature (), while he was still a phd student.