Cooper named fellow of American Chemical Society
Professor Stuart Cooper has been named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, Polymer Division. Cooper was among seven chemists and chemical engineers nationwide to receive the honor this year.
"This year's selected and inducted awardees truly demonstrate excellence in all ways that POLY members advance our field of polymer science, through scientific accomplishments and service to the profession," said Karl Haider, member of the POLY Fellows Review Committee.
Cooper's expertise is in the areas of polymer physics, block polymers, ionomers, polyurethanes, and biomaterials. A member of the National Academy of Engineering, Cooper is known for his immense contributions both in fundamental understanding and in technological application. He is a true pioneer in the biomaterials field, having broken vital new ground in understanding interactions of polymeric materials with physiological fluids and tissues since more than 40 years ago.
Cooper is known worldwide for his fundamental work on phase separation in block polymers, which are responsible for the good mechanical properties of many widely-used polymers such as the polyurethanes used in the high-performance thermoplastic elastomer industry. He also led the field in defining biomedical polyurethanes from both a chemical and physical perspective, and wrote two major books in the field. His early research integrating chemical engineering with the then-emerging discipline of biomedical engineering has much advanced polymer blood compatibility and biocompatibility. He holds seven patents.
Cooper, a founding fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, received the AIChE Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering in 2014 and the American Chemical Society's Chemistry of Thermoplastic Elastomers Award in 2013, in addition to many others.
The ACS Polymer Division Fellow Awardees will be honored with a plaque during the spring ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia, PA at the POLY/PMSE Award Ceremony held at the Franklin Institute.
