Nancy Tyrer joined Sheridan College as a professor in the Chemical Engineering Technology programs in 1986, and since that time has provided leadership regarding the establishment of new courses in several key areas. In order to incorporate biotechnology into the chemical curriculum, Nancy established new foundational courses in microbiology and biochemistry to support the needs of industry in order to train technicians and technologists using modern biochemical methods.

During the past decade, Nancy has devoted all her energy to the upgrading and modernization of the Instrumental Analysis Laboratory. She has designed, developed and tested more than 60 relevant industrial laboratory experiments for Instrumental Analysis and Biochemistry. In 2013, she provided leadership for the commissioning of a new Instrumentation Lab at the Davis campus, where 18 state-of-the-art software-driven analytical instruments were installed and operationalized.

Prior to joining Sheridan, she worked for several years at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC) as a research associate in the materials characterization group. Nancy won a XRCC Special Achievement Award in 1984 for her work on crystalline polymers and published several papers in peer-reviewed journals, including ACS Macromolecules and Polymer Bulletins. Nancy also worked for a short time at Canadian Industries Limited (CIL) as a chemist in the analytical services section.

Nancy graduated from McMaster University in 1979 with an Honours BSc. in biochemistry and chemistry. She won the top achievement award for her fourth-year thesis project. During her second and third year of studies at McMaster, she had the privilege of working as a summer student at the National Research Council (NRC) in Ottawa in the biological sciences division in the immunochemistry group. At NRC, she worked on monoclonal antibodies directed against antigenic determinates.

After graduation, Nancy moved out West with her husband and worked at the University of Calgary for an analytical chemistry professor studying the permeability of polymeric composite membranes for the chloroalkali industry.