Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum listens to a question during her daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on November 6, 2024.
Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum listens to a question during her daily press conference at the National Palace in Mexico City on November 6, 2024.
Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images
CNN  — 

Here is a look at the life of Claudia Sheinbaum, climate scientist and the first woman and first person of Jewish heritage to be elected president of Mexico.

Personal

Birth date: June 24, 1962

Birth place: Mexico City, Mexico

Birth name: Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo

Father: Carlos Sheinbaum, chemical engineer

Mother: Annie Pardo, biologist and professor

Marriages: Jesús María Tarriba (2023-present); Carlos Ímaz Gispert (1987-2016, divorced)

Children: with Carlos Ímaz Gispert: Mariana and Rodrigo (Ímaz Gispert’s son from a previous marriage)

Education: B.S. in physics, 1989; M.S. in energy engineering; Ph.D. in energy engineering - all from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Religion: Has Jewish ancestors although she rarely speaks publicly about her personal background and has governed as a secular leftist

Other Facts

Sheinbaum is pronounced SHANE-baum.

Known as “la Doctora” for her academic credentials.

Has a long history with activism, from her parents who were involved in Mexico’s 1968 protest movement, to her own immersion in student politics when she protested against the privatization of public education while studying for her undergraduate degree at UNAM.

Completed her doctoral research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California.

Sheinbaum’s maternal grandparents emigrated from Europe to escape the Holocaust.

Timeline

1995 - Joins the faculty of UNAM’s Engineering Institute.

2000-2006 - Appointed environment secretary of Mexico City by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, then the head of the city’s government.

2007 - Part of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore for “their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

2014 - Leaves the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) to join López Obrador’s newly founded splinter party National Regeneration Movement (MORENA).

2015-2017 - Serves as the head of the Tlalpan district of Mexico City.

2018-June 2023 - First woman elected mayor of Mexico City.

September 2023 - Wins the nomination over Marcelo Ebrard to represent the coalition consisting of MORENA, the Labor Party and the Ecologist Green Party.

June 2, 2024 - Wins around 60% of the vote in the largest election in Mexico’s history.

October 1, 2024 - Sworn-in as the 66th president of Mexico, for a six-year term, replacing longtime ally López Obrador. Sheinbaum is the country’s first female president in more than 200 years of independence.