Shyamala Gopalan biography: 13 things about scientist born in Tamil Nadu, India

Who was Shyamala Gopalan?

Shyamala Gopalan was an Indian-American biomedical scientist. She is the mother of Kamala Harris, the 49th vice president of the United States, and lawyer, public policy advocate, television commentator and political analyst Maya Harris.

Gopalan contributed in the advancement of breast biology and oncology through her work in isolating and characterizing the progesterone receptor gene. She was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India to P.V. Gopalan and Rajam Gopalan.

P.V. was a civil servant. He was a Brahmin, part of a privileged elite in the ancient caste hierarchy of Hinduism.

As a teenager, Shyamala won a national competition in South Indian classical music. She earned her bachelor’s degree in home science from Lady Irwin College in New Delhi, India and conducted research in the Department of Zoology and Cancer Research Lab of the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, USA.

As a breast cancer researcher, Shyamala worked at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in Champaign, Illinois, USA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. She served as a peer reviewer for the National Institutes of Health.

Shyamala was the eldest of four children. Here are 13 more things about her:

1. She worked at Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University Faculty of Medicine for 16 years.
2. She was a site visit team member for the Federal Advisory Committee. ‘
3. She served on the President’s Special Commission on Breast Cancer.
4. She worked in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
5. In 1958, she applied to a masters program in nutrition and endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California, USA and was accepted.
6. In 1962, she met Jamaican student Donald J. Harris at a meeting of the Afro American Association in the university.
7. In 1964, she graduated from UC Berkeley with a PhD in nutrition and endocrinology.
8. In 1963, she and Harris got married without introducing him to her parents beforehand or having the ceremony in her hometown in India as part of the tradition in her home country.
9. In 1971, she and Harris divorced.
10. On October 20, 1964, she gave birth to Kamala.
11. On January 30, 1967, she gave birth to Maya.
12. On December 7, 2008, she turned 70.
13. On February 11, 2009, she died in Oakland, California.

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