[3][4][5] Gonsalves was born and raised on a sugar plantation in Kohala, Hawaii.
Since 2002 he was the director of a USDA research center in Hilo and is now retired and living in Hawaii.
[4][7] Gonsalves began his research career at Cornell University working on virus-resistant plants.
While on a trip back home to Hawaii, he learned from local farmers that a virus was rapidly making its way toward the Big Island's Puna District, where the majority of the state's papayas were grown.
[4] Funded by USAID, he helped develop locally adapted papaya varieties for Venezuela, Jamaica, Brazil, Africa, and Bangladesh.