She specialised in the study of plant viruses. During World War II, the Rothamsted Experimental Station was allocated an electron microscope for the prime purpose of studying plant viruses, and Sheffield and E. M. Crook were largely responsible for its initial assembly.[3]
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1972 New Year Honours, when she was described as "lately Principal Scientific Officer, Plant Quarantine Station, East African Agriculture and Forestry Research Organisation, Maguga, Kenya".[4]