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Shyamala Gopalan was born on 7 December, 1938 in Madras, Madras Presidency, British India (present-day Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India), is an Indian-American biomedical scientist and researcher (1938–2009). Discover Shyamala Gopalan's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Learn How rich is she in this year and how she spends money? Also learn how she earned most of networth at the age of 70 years old?

Popular As N/A
Occupation N/A
Age 70 years old
Zodiac Sign Sagittarius
Born 7 December, 1938
Birthday 7 December
Birthplace Madras, Madras Presidency, British India (present-day Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
Date of death 11 February, 2009
Died Place Oakland, California, U.S.
Nationality India

We recommend you to check the complete list of Famous People born on 7 December. She is a member of famous president with the age 70 years old group.

Shyamala Gopalan Height, Weight & Measurements

At 70 years old, Shyamala Gopalan height not available right now. We will update Shyamala Gopalan's Height, weight, Body Measurements, Eye Color, Hair Color, Shoe & Dress size soon as possible.

Physical Status
Height Not Available
Weight Not Available
Body Measurements Not Available
Eye Color Not Available
Hair Color Not Available

Who Is Shyamala Gopalan's Husband?

Her husband is Donald J. Harris (m. 1963-1971)

Family
Parents P. V. Gopalan (father) Rajam Gopalan (mother)
Husband Donald J. Harris (m. 1963-1971)
Sibling Not Available
Children Kamala Harris Maya Harris

Shyamala Gopalan Net Worth

Her net worth has been growing significantly in 2023-2024. So, how much is Shyamala Gopalan worth at the age of 70 years old? Shyamala Gopalan’s income source is mostly from being a successful president. She is from India. We have estimated Shyamala Gopalan's net worth, money, salary, income, and assets.

Net Worth in 2024 $1 Million - $5 Million
Salary in 2024 Under Review
Net Worth in 2023 Pending
Salary in 2023 Under Review
House Not Available
Cars Not Available
Source of Income president

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Timeline

1938

Shyamala Gopalan (December 7, 1938 – February 11, 2009) was a biomedical scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, whose work in isolating and characterizing the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast biology and oncology.

She is the mother of Vice President of the United States Kamala Harris and Maya Harris, a lawyer and political commentator.

Shyamala was born on December 7, 1938, in Madras, Madras Province, British India (present-day Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) to Rajam Gopalan and P. V. Gopalan, a civil servant.

Her parents were from two villages near the town of Mannargudi in Madras Province.

According to The Los Angeles Times, "Gopalan was a Tamil Brahmin, part of a privileged elite in Hinduism’s ancient caste hierarchy".

According to Shyamala's brother, Balachandran, their parents were broad-minded in raising the children, all of whom led somewhat unconventional lives.

Her father began his professional life as a stenographer, rising through the ranks in the civil service, moving the family every few years between Madras, New Delhi, Bombay, and Calcutta.

A gifted singer of Carnatic music, Shyamala won a national competition in it as a teenager.

She studied for a BSc in Home Science at Lady Irwin College in Delhi.

Her father thought the subject—which taught skills considered helpful in homemaking—was a mismatch for her abilities; her mother expected the children to seek careers in medicine, engineering, or the law.

1958

In 1958, aged 19, Shyamala unexpectedly applied to a master's program in nutrition and endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley, and was accepted.

Her parents used some of their retirement savings to pay her tuition and board during the first year.

Not having a phone line at home, they communicated with her after her arrival in the US by aerogram.

1962

In the fall of 1962, at a meeting of the Afro-American Association—a students' group at Berkeley whose members would go on to give structure to the discipline of Black studies, propose the holiday of Kwanzaa, and help establish the Black Panther Party—Shyamala met a graduate student in economics from Jamaica, Donald J. Harris, who was that day's speaker.

1963

According to Donald Harris, who is now an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University, “We talked then, continued to talk at a subsequent meeting, and at another, and another." In 1963 they were married without following the convention of introducing Harris to Shyamala's parents beforehand or having the ceremony in her hometown. In the later 1960s, Donald and Shyamala took their daughters, Kamala, then four or five years old, and Maya, two years younger, to newly independent Zambia, where Shyamala's father, Gopalan, was on an advisory assignment. After Shyamala divorced Donald in the early 1970s, she took her daughters to India several times to visit her parents in Chennai, where they had retired.

The children also visited their father's family in Jamaica as they grew up.

Wanda Kagan, one of Kamala's high school friends in Montreal, described how after she told Kamala her stepfather was molesting her, Shyamala insisted she move in with them for her final year of high school.

Kagan said that Shyamala helped her navigate the system to get the support she needed to live independently of her family.

1964

She earned a PhD in nutrition and endocrinology at UC Berkeley in 1964.

Shyamala's dissertation, which was supervised by Richard L. Lyman, was titled The isolation and purification of a trypsin inhibitor from whole wheat flour.

Shyamala conducted research in UC Berkeley's Department of Zoology and Cancer Research Lab.

She worked as a breast cancer researcher at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and University of Wisconsin.

She worked for 16 years at Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and McGill University Faculty of Medicine.

She served as a peer reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and as a site visit team member for the Federal Advisory Committee.

She also served on the President's Special Commission on Breast Cancer.

She mentored dozens of students in her lab.

For her last decade of research, Shyamala worked in the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Shyamala's research led to advancements in the knowledge of hormones pertaining to breast cancer.

Her work in the isolation and characterization of the progesterone receptor gene in mice changed research on the hormone-responsiveness of breast tissue.

2009

Shyamala died of colon cancer in Oakland on February 11, 2009 at aged 70.

She requested that donations be made to the organization Breast Cancer Action.

Later in 2009, Kamala Harris carried her ashes to Chennai on the southeastern coast of peninsular India and scattered them in the Indian Ocean waters.