UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 38, Page 1
August 1, 1996
Engineering dean named Biomaterials society head

     Stuart L. Cooper, H. Rodney Sharp Professor of Chemical
Engineering and dean of the College of Engineering, has been elected
president of the Society of Biomaterials. He assumed the leadership
position June 1 and will serve until May 31, 1997.
     The society promotes advances in all phases of biomaterials
research and development by encouraging cooperative educational
programs, clinical applications and professional standards in the
field.
     A biomaterial is any material- natural or man-made-that comprises
whole or part of a living structure or biomedical device designed to
perform, augment or replace a natural function.
     As president, Cooper will oversee the society's activities in the
areas of educational programs, such as short courses, symposia and
workshops, as well as the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research,
Journal of Applied Biomaterials and the Biomaterials Forum.
     The society holds an annual meeting at which numerous scientific
sessions are held, and where the achievements of outstanding
scientists and young investigators in the areas of biomaterials
research are recognized.
     Dean of the College of Engineering since 1992, Cooper has been a
visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley,
Technion University in Israel and Universite Paris-Nord. His research
interests include polyurethane biomaterials, blood-material
interactions, polymer science and engineering, structure-property
relations of polyurethanes, ionomers and block polymers.
     Cooper holds three patents and is the author or coauthor of more
than 250 articles in professional journals and 40 review articles and
book chapters.
     He is coauthor of Polyurethanes in Medicine and coeditor of four
books: Multiphase Polymers; Biomaterials: Interfacial Phenomena and
Applications;  The Vroman Effect in Medicine; and Polymer
Biomaterials: In Solution, as Interfaces and as Solids.
     Cooper is cofounding editor of the Journal of Biomaterials
Science, Polymer Edition, and he currently serves on five editorial
advisory boards. He also directs the research of nine graduate
students and two postdoctoral research associates.
     Cooper has received several awards, including the Charles Stine
Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and the
Clemson Award for Basic Research from the Society for Biomaterials.
     He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American
Institute of Chemical Engineering, the Society for Biomaterials and a
founding fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological
Engineering. In the fall, Cooper will be representing the U.S. at the
Korean Society of Biomaterials conference.