Science - Technology

Mary Styles Harris

Born June 26, 1949, in Nashville, Tennessee, Mary Styles Harris turned an early love of science into a prominent career in health research. Since earning her doctorate in molecular biology from Cornell University in 1975, Harris has raised greater awareness for medical issues like sickle-cell anemia and breast cancer. She was a 1980 recipient of Glamour magazine’s Outstanding Working Women award.

Geneticist and health researcher Mary Styles Harris was born June 26, 1949, in Nashville, Tennessee. The daughter of a doctor, she grew up in Miami, Florida, where her father, George Styles, opened a medical practice.

In the Styles family, a premium was placed on academics and on the sciences in particular. In 1963 Harris became one of the first African Americans to enter Miami Jackson High School. While attending the school, Harris entered local science fairs and also found work as a technician at the first black-owned medical lab in Miami, where she gained valuable experience conducting tests and learning how to use lab equipment. Harris graduated 12th out of 350 students in her class.

In 1967 Harris enrolled at Lincoln University in Lincoln, Pennsylvania, and was again in the minority as one of the institutions few female students. Harris earned a B.A. in biology in 1971 and also received a Ford Foundation Doctoral Fellowship to study molecular genetics.
Shortly after graduating, she married Sidney Harris, a young engineer. Together the couple moved to Ithaca, New York, where they both pursued graduate degrees at Cornell University—Sydney in engineering and Mary in the school’s esteemed molecular genetics program.

After completing her Ph.D. in genetics in 1975, Harris received a National Cancer Research postdoctoral fellowship to study the makeup of viruses. The often intense, demanding research, which she did at the New Jersey University of Medicine and Dentistry, led Harris to step away from lab work in 1977 to take an administrative position as executive director at the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia.

Harris leveraged the position to heighten awareness about sickle-cell anemia. She conducted lectures and speeches and produced and starred in a series of television documentaries about issues related to the disease.

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