Shyamala Gopalan Kamala Harris Mother, Bio, Wiki, Age, Height, Parents, Family, Husband, and Cause of Death

Shyamala Gopalan Bio | Wiki

Shyamala Gopalan was a Tamil Indian-America breast cancer researcher and civil rights activist. She was the mother of both Maya Harris, a political commentator and a lawyer, and Kamala Harris the US Vice President.

Shyamala Gopalan Age | BirthPlace

She was born on April 7, 1938, in Madras (now Chennai), in the Mandras Province (now Tamil Nadu), of British India. Gopalan passed on when she was 70 years old and celebrated her birthday on April 7 every year.

Shyamala Gopalan Height

She was a woman of short stature who stood at a height of 5 ft 1 in (Approx 1.55 m).

Shyamala Gopalan's Photo
Gopalan’s Photo

Shyamala Gopalan Parents | Family

Gopalan was born to her parents Rajam and P.V. Gopalan in Chennai, in the Tamil Nadu Province of British India. Her father was a Tamil diplomat who also took part in the freedom movement. She had a brother called Balachandran. Her parents were broad-minded in raising her and her siblings.

In addition, Gopalan was a gifted singer of Carnatic music and was the winner of a national competition as a teenager. She moved to the United States at the age of 19 years old to attend the University of California in Berkeley. However, there is not much information in regard to her mother.

Shyamala Gopalan Siblings

She was born into a family of four children. Gopalan was the oldest child of Rajam and P.V. Gopalan. She had two sisters and one brother Balachandran. However, her sister’s names are still away from the limelight.

Shyamala Gopalan Kamala Harris Mother

She was the wife of Donald Harris, a professor of economics at Stanford who was born in Jamaica. Gopalan had two daughters with Harris named Kamala Harris and  Maya Harris. She was also the grandmother to Meena Harris, Ella Emhoff,  Cole Emhoff, and mother-in-law to Kamala Harris’s husband Douglas Emhoff, and Maya Harris’s husband, Tony West. Gopalan was a great inspiration to her daughters.

Shyamala Gopalan Donald Harris | Husband

The late Gopalan was married to the love of her life Donald Harris, a Jamaican-American professor of economics at Stanford University. The two met at Berkeley where they were both involved in the civil rights movement. Together they were blessed with two daughters, Kamala Harris, and Maya Harris. Gopalan and Donald’s marriage ended in divorce in 1971 when Kamala was only seven years old. She raised her daughters as a single mother instilling good morals in her children.

Shyamala Gopalan Education

Gopalan attended Lady Irwin College of the University of Delhi where she received her undergraduate degree at the age of 19. She later enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, and graduated with a Ph.D. degree in Nutrition and Endocrinology at the age of 25. Gopalan’s essay was known as “The isolation and purification of a trypsin inhibitor from whole wheat flour.”

Shyamala Gopalan Nationality

She was an American by Nationality and belonged to the Indian-Tamil ethnicity

Shyamala Gopalan Cause Of Death

Gopalan passed on, on February 11, 2009, in Oakland, California, United States from colon cancer. She died at the age of 7o leaving behind her two daughters and granddaughter.

Shyamala Gopalan Religion

She was a member of Tamil Brahmin. Tamil Brahmin was a privileged elite in Hunduis’s ancient caste hierarchy.

Dr. Shyamala Gopalan Harris

Gopalan was a Tamil Indian-American breast cancer researcher and civil rights activist. She carried out research at UC Berkeley’s Department of Zoology and cancer research Lab. Gopalan worked at both the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin as a breast cancer researcher. She also worked at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University Faculty of Medicine for 16 years.

Moreover, Gopalan worked as a peer reviewer for the National Institutes of Health as well as a site visit team member for the Federal Advisory Committee. In addition, she also served on the President’s Special Commission concerning Breast Cancer. Gopalan was a mentor to dozens of students in her lab. She worked in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for her last decade of research.

Gopalan’s research led to the developing of the knowledge of hormones concerning breast cancer. Her efforts in isolating and characterizing the progesterone receptor gene in mice transmuted research on the hormone responsiveness of breast tissue. During her time at Berkeley Laboratory, Gopalan’s lab examined the role of sex steroids in the induction of breast cancers.

Who Is Shyamala Gopalan

Gopalan was a Tamil Indian-American breast cancer researcher and civil rights activist.

Where Was Shyamala Gopalan Born

She was born in Madras (now Chennai), in the Mandras Province (now Tamil Nadu), of British India.