Professor of Human Factors in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering and Associate Pro-Vice Chancellor for Research in the Faculty of Engineering, University of Nottingham.

Professor Sharples is a Chartered Ergonomist and Human Factors Specialist, and her main areas of interest and expertise are Human-Computer Interaction, cognitive ergonomics and development of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies for examination of interaction with innovative technologies in complex systems. She is President of the Chartered Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors, and co-editor of the leading ergonomics/human factors text, Evaluation of Human Work, 4th edition (2015).

She completed her PhD in 1999 and has been a researcher, research manager or grant holder on a number of industrial, government and EU funded projects, including a long term programme of research for Network Rail examining implications, design and implementation of novel interfaces for railway control and use of rail simulation for human factors research. She is a CI in the Horizon Digital Economy Research Institute and Co-Director of the Horizon Doctoral Training Centre. She is PI of a national network to support PhD students in Digital Economy, and leads the University of Nottingham and Leicester Partnership with the Transport Systems Catapult, where she is also a Non-Executive Director. She works in the domains of transport, healthcare and manufacturing, and leads the 'Digital Futures' Global Research Theme for the University of Nottingham.