Morris D. Cooper, Ph.D., professor of medical microbiology and immunology, has been named chair of the department at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.
Cooper joined the SIU faculty in 1973. He also is cross-appointed as a professor of microbiology at SIU in Carbondale, having been named to that faculty in 1975. Before coming to SIU, he was a visiting associate professor in the infectious diseases division at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine (1981-82).
He received his bachelor's degree from King College, Bristol, Tenn. (1965) and a master's degree from Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tenn. (1967). He earned his doctorate from the University of Georgia, Athens (1971) and then was a research fellow at the Harvard University School of Public Health in Boston, Mass. (1971-72).
He is a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of American and is board certified by the American Academy of Microbiology and the American Board of Bioanalysis. He is a member of Sigma Xi, American Society for Microbiology, American Venereal Disease Association, American Association for the Advancement of Science, New York Academy of Sciences, American Association of Immunologist, Society for General Microbiology, Society for Mucosal Immunology, American Society for Reproduction Medicine, Society for Male Reproduction and Urology and College of Reproductive Biology (charter member). He is a reviewer for several journals -- "Sexually Transmitted Disease," "Analytical Biochemistry" and "Scanning Electron Microscopy."
Cooper is principal investigator on three active grants including two funded by the National Institutes of Health. His current research interests are sexually transmitted diseases and infertility. He is a consultant for the IVF program at Memorial Medical Center and the Reproductive Endocrinology Associates in Springfield.
A native of Norton, Va., Cooper is married to Virginia Cooper and has two children.
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