University Times

A. G. (Jack) Sharkey Jr., a pioneer in mass spectrometry and its application to organic molecules and a long-time adjunct faculty member at the Department of Geology and Planetary Science at Pitt, died Nov. 17, 2003, in Mt. Lebanon. He was 84, and suffered from Parkinson’s Disease.

A physicist by training, Sharkey attended the College of Wooster, Case Institute of Technology and Pitt. He joined the U.S. Bureau of Mines in 1946 and stayed with the Bruceton, Pa., laboratory during its transition to the Department of Energy in 1977.

From 1978 to 1985 he was deputy director of the Pittsburgh Energy Technology Center (PETC), at that time the largest fossil energy research center operated by the federal government.

Sharkey’s major research interest at PETC was the application of spectral analysis techniques to coal and coal-derived fuels. He had more than 200 publications to his credit, most of them in the field of mass spectrometry of organic compounds, and including investigations of coal, coal extracts, and coal gasification and liquefaction products.

His latest research, which he continued until his retirement from Pitt in 1996, was the investigation of oxidized coal surfaces using surface analysis techniques including laser mass spectrometry. Among his more unusual investigations was analyzing baboon blood as part of a liver transplant study, in conjunction with Pitt’s Department of Chemistry and the School of Medicine.

As an adjunct faculty member at the Department of Geology and Planetary Science, Sharkey taught two of the first graduate-level mass spectrometry courses in the country starting in 1964 and continuing until he retired. The two-course sequence, Introductory Mass Spectrometry and Interpretation of Mass Spectra, included students from many departments at Pitt, from other universities and from all major industrial research laboratories in the area.

These courses enrolled a “who’s who” of people who went on to success in geology, chemistry, materials science and other disciplines, according to friend and colleague Michael Bikerman, Pitt emeritus professor of geology.

Bikerman said he and Sharkey shared the MS-10 mass spectrometer that the department had acquired in the early 1960s for classroom and research use.

“Over 33 years, we never had a cross word,” Bikerman said. “I respected him and liked him very much, as everybody did, and he respected me.” Their cooperation extended to upgrading and maintaining the equipment as well as serving together on graduate committees, he said.

Sharkey occasionally served as acting department chair, despite being on the part-time faculty. “In this role his easy manner, broad knowledge and people skills served in good stead in resolving the many problems that cropped up. It could be said that a faculty meeting chaired by Jack Sharkey was almost a pleasant occasion!” Bikerman recalled.

Following Sharkey’s retirement from the federal government in 1985, he was named research professor at the geology and planetary science department and joined the research faculty of Pitt’s Surface Science Center.

Sharkey was a long-time member and past chairman of the Pittsburgh Conference on Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, and of the Spectroscopy Society in Pittsburgh.

Among many awards, Sharkey received the Department of Interior Distinguished Service Award in 1970 and the Department of Energy Distinguished Career Service Award in 1985, the highest awards given by those departments, respectively.

He also received the Pittsburgh Award of the American Chemical Society, Pittsburgh Section, in 1992, and the ACS Student Affiliates Outstanding Service Award that year. He was honored in 1994 as a pioneer in mass spectroscopy at the James L. Waters Symposium in Chicago and in 1997 with a symposium in his name that brought some of the world’s best-known scientists in mass spectrometry and geochemistry to Pittsburgh.

For many years the Sharkeys were active members of the Bower Hill Community Church in Mt. Lebanon.

In addition to his wife of 60 years, Lois (Tooie), Sharkey is survived by sons Andrew G. Sharkey III and Richard G. Sharkey; sister Carol Sharkey Embley; grandchildren Rebecca Faiella, Benjamin, Katherine, Roxanne and Brian Sharkey, and great-grandchildren John Andrew and Kathryn Faiella.

The family requests that memorial contributions be made to the Parkinson’s Disease Foundation, 650 West 168th St., New York, NY 10032, or to Bower Hill Community Church, 70 Moffett Street, Pittsburgh 15243.