Kamala Harris - Meet the Family: Mother Shyamala Gopalan Harris

According to Shyamala's obituary, "She made substantial contributions to the field of hormones and breast cancer, publishing her research in countless journals and receiving numerous honors...Her discovery sparked a plethora of advancements regarding the role of progesterone and its cellular receptor in breast biology and cancer." She was also well-known as a mentor, particularly to students of color. Now, her daughter gets to build upon that impressive foundation.

Gopalan, was a high achiever who pursued a career in medical research with the greatest conviction. 

After securing an undergraduate degree from the University of Delhi, and at the age of just 20, Gopalan travelled to the United States to earn a doctorate in nutrition and endocrinology from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Following her graduation, Gopalan would continue to work at the Cancer Research lab at the university as a breast cancer researcher before later taking up positions at the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin. She also spent 16 years at the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research at the Jewish General Hospital and the Department of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. 

During her time at UC Berkeley, Gopalan was also heavily involved in civil rights activism which is how she came to meet her husband, and Harris' father, Donald Harris, who would later become a professor of economics at Stanford University. 

Shyamala married Donald Harris, from Jamaica. They met when he was at Berkeley and both were involved in the civil rights movement. The couple divorced when their daughter Kamala was 7 years old.

Joe Biden is 4 years younger than Kamala Harris's Mother, he was born November 20, 1942.

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