Shyamala Gopalan

Shyamala Gopalan (December 7, 1938 – February 11, 2009) was an India-born Tamil American civil rights activist and cancer researcher. She was the mother of Kamala Harris, the 49th Vice President of the United States. Gopalan conducted research in the Cancer Research Lab in UC Berkeley's Department of Zoology. Her research led to advancements in the knowledge of breast cancer hormones. Her work changed the progress on the research of the hormone-responsiveness of breast tissue.

She married Jamaican economics professor Donald J. Harris in 1963. They had two children named Kamala and Maya. Gopalan and Harris later divorced in 1971. She died from colon cancer in 2009, at 70 years old.

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Category:1938 births
Category:2009 deaths
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:Tamil activists
Category:Scientists from Oakland, California
Category:Indian scientists
Category:Civil rights activists
Category:Kamala Harris