Jennifer Lois Pinkham ’77

Jennifer Lois Pinkham ’77 died on February 1, 2005, in Pelham, Massachusetts.

Born on December 16, 1955, in Bangor, she prepared for college at Fort Kent High Community High School and was a member of Zeta Psi Fraternity at Bowdoin. Following her graduation cum laude in 1977, she received her doctor of philosophy degree from Yale University in 1983 and was an instructor in a biotechnology laboratory course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After three years as a postdoctoral fellow in the M.I.T. biology department, she was an assistant professor in molecular neurobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine from 1986 to 1990. In 1990, she joined the department of biochemistry at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. At the time of her death she held the position of research associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. She was the recipient of a National Science Foundation Visiting Professorship for Women in 1991-92, one of only 25 such appointments nationwide. At the Bowdoin Science Symposium held in conjunction with the dedication of Druckenmiller Hall in 1997 she presented a paper on “Complex Regulation of a Gene that Protects Against Oxidative Stress.” She is survived by her husband, Martin Weinberg of Pelham, MA; a sister, Laura Risom of Ridgefield, CT; two brothers, Edward R. Pinkham, Jr. of Sharon, MA, and Andrew A. Pinkham of Somerville, MA; her parents, E. Randall and Theresa Pinkham of Fort Kent, three nephews; and two nieces.