David Cooper (immunologist)
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{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix =
| name = David Cooper
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=AUS|size=100%|AC|FRACP|FRCPA|FRCP|FAA|FAHMS}}
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| birth_name = David Albert Cooper
| birth_date = 19 April 1949
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| death_date = {{Death date and age|2018|03|18|1949|04|19|df=yes}}
| death_place = Sydney, Australia
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| occupation = Immunologist
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David Albert Cooper (19 April 1949 – 18 March 2018) was an Australian HIV/AIDS researcher, immunologist, professor at the University of New South Wales, and the director of the Kirby Institute. He and Professor Ron Penny diagnosed the first case of HIV in Australia.{{cite web |url= https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1041309 |title= Officer of the Order of Australia |date= 26 January 2003 |publisher= It's an Honour }} "For service to medicine as a clinician, researcher and leading contributor in the field of HIV/AIDS research, and to the development of new treatment approaches."{{cite web |url=https://www.science.org.au/fellowship/fellows/professor-david-albert-cooper |title=Fellows Elected in 2007 |publisher=Australian Academy of Science |accessdate=27 January 2017}}
Education
Born in 1949 to Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Cooper attended the Cranbrook School, graduating aged 15, then attended the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1969 and an MBBS from Sydney Medical School in 1972. After completing his residency and fellowships in internal medicine (immunology) and pathology (immunology) at St Vincent's Hospital, he was awarded a postgraduate research scholarship by the University of New South Wales to study immunology.
Career
In 1975 Cooper went to Tucson, Arizona, where he was a research fellow at the University of Arizona Medical Center. He then returned to St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney and was promoted to an immunology staff specialist position in 1979.{{cite web |url=https://sydney.edu.au/medicine/museum/mwmuseum/index.php/Cooper,_David_Albert |title=Cooper, David Albert |publisher=Sydney Medical School |first=Lise|last=Mellor |year=2008 |accessdate=13 June 2016}}{{Cite web|date=2015-05-22|title=Professor David Cooper on fighting HIV/AIDS for three decades|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/archived/sundayprofile/professor-david-cooper-on-fighting-hivaids-for-three-decades/6489402|access-date=2021-07-22|website=Radio National|language=en-AU}}
Cooper travelled to Boston, Massachusetts and worked as a research fellow in cancer immunology in 1981—the beginning of the outbreak of HIV/AIDS in the United States. Having seen the symptoms of HIV/AIDS in young gay men in the US, Cooper returned to Australia and resumed his role at St Vincent's Hospital, where he recognised the same illness in young Australian men who had recently travelled to the US. He is credited, together with Professor Ron Penny, with diagnosing the first case of HIV in Australia, in 1982{{Cite web|url=https://sydney.edu.au/medicine/museum/mwmuseum/index.php/Penny,_Ronald|title=Penny, Ronald - Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive|website=sydney.edu.au|language=en|access-date=2018-03-22}}{{Cite web|url=http://undertheredribbon.com.au/timeline/|title=Timeline of Key Events|website=undertheredribbon.com.au|language=en-US|access-date=2018-03-22|archive-date=12 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180312165808/http://undertheredribbon.com.au/timeline/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/sundayprofile/professor-david-cooper-on-fighting-hivaids-for-three-decades/6489402 |work=ABC News |title=Professor David Cooper on fighting HIV/AIDS for three decades |first=Belinda|last=Sommer |date=22 May 2015 |accessdate=13 June 2016}} and published a seminal case series on HIV seroconversion illness in The Lancet in 1985.[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/2857899/ "Acute AIDS retrovirus infection. Definition of a clinical illness associated with seroconversion." Lancet. 1985;1:537-40] He also reported the first observation of HIV transmission during breastfeeding in the world in 1985.{{Cite journal|last1=Ziegler|first1=J. B.|last2=Cooper|first2=D. A.|last3=Johnson|first3=R. O.|last4=Gold|first4=J.|date=1985-04-20|title=Postnatal transmission of AIDS-associated retrovirus from mother to infant|journal=Lancet|volume=1|issue=8434|pages=896–898|issn=0140-6736|pmid=2858746|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(85)91673-3|s2cid=23043541}} He was awarded a Doctor of Medicine by UNSW in 1983 and was appointed a senior lecturer at the university in 1986. In the same year he was named director of the newly founded National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research (now the Kirby Institute).
In 1991 he was named chair of the WHO Global Program on AIDS committee on clinical research and drug development, and in 1994 he was appointed full professor and awarded a Doctor of Science by UNSW. In 1996 he and two other HIV/AIDS researchers, Joep Lange from the Netherlands and Praphan Phanuphak from Thailand, founded a research centre in Bangkok named HIV-NAT (HIV Netherlands Australia Thailand Research Collaboration). Cooper, Lange and Phanuphak also established a program to increase access to antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV in Cambodia.
Cooper was director of the Kirby Institute from its establishment in 1986 until his death.{{cite web |url=http://kirby.unsw.edu.au/content/about-kirby-institute |publisher=Kirby Institute |title=About the Kirby Institute |accessdate=13 June 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160816172405/http://kirby.unsw.edu.au/content/about-kirby-institute |archive-date=16 August 2016 }} He was also a past president of the International AIDS Society.{{cite web |url=http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/484323 |title=Antiretroviral Drug Access in the Developing World: An Expert Interview With David Cooper, MD |publisher=Medscape |first=Mark |last=Wainberg |year=2004 |accessdate=13 June 2016}} - Requires registration to access article.
Personal life
He died at St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney on 18 March 2018 after suffering for a short period from a rare autoimmune inflammatory disease.{{cite news |url=https://kirby.unsw.edu.au/news/kirby-institute-director-professor-david-cooper-ao-passes-away |title=Kirby Institute Director Professor David Cooper, AO, passes away |date=19 March 2018 |work=Kirby Institute |accessdate=22 March 2018 }}{{cite news |last1=Miranda |first1=Charles |title=Renowned Australian doctor who became a global leader in the fight on Aids has died |url=http://www.news.com.au/technology/science/human-body/the-man-who-diagnosed-australias-first-hiv-case-dies/news-story/cea425e66bbdf3a78fa383d814a0bbfd |accessdate=20 March 2018 |work=News.com.au |date=19 March 2018}}{{cite web |title= The Kirby Institute mourns the passing of Kirby Institute Director, Professor David Cooper, AO |url=https://kirby.unsw.edu.au/news/kirby-institute-mourns-passing-kirby-institute-director-professor-david-cooper-ao |website= Kirby Institute |publisher=University of New South Wales |date=19 March 2018 |accessdate=20 March 2018 |language=en}}{{cite web |url=http://www.afr.com/news/vale-david-cooper-australias-global-leader-in-hiv-medicine-20180319-h0xo5i |title=Vale David Cooper, Australia's global leader in HIV medicine |publisher= Australian Financial Review |author=Margo, Jill |date=29 March 2018}}
Honours
Cooper was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) in 2003 "for service to medicine as a clinician, researcher, and leading contributor to HIV/AIDS research, and to the development of new treatment approaches". He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science (FAA) in 2007 and an inaugural Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) in 2015.{{cite press release |url=http://kirby.unsw.edu.au/news/professor-david-cooper-announced-inaugural-fellow-australian-academy-health-and-medical |title=Professor David Cooper announced as inaugural Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences |date=8 April 2015 |publisher=Kirby Institute |accessdate=13 June 2016}} In 2016, he was awarded the James Cook Medal by the Royal Society of New South Wales.{{cite web |url=http://royalsoc.org.au/awards/james-cook-medal |title= The James Cook Medal |publisher= The Royal Society of NSW |accessdate= 12 April 2017}}
In 2017 his accomplishments were acknowledged by a motion in the Australian Senate.[http://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?id=2017-06-13.117.2 Motions – Cooper, Professor David Albert, AO], 13 June 2017, Senate debates, www.openaustralia.org.au In recognition of his life's work Cooper was posthumously appointed Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) in the 2018 Queens's Birthday Honours for "eminent service to medicine, particularly in the area of HIV/AIDS research, as a clinician, scientist and administrator, to the development of treatment therapies, and to health programs in South East Asia and the Pacific".{{Cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/2001259|title=COOPER, David Albert|last=|first=|date=|website=honours.pmc.gov.au|access-date=2018-06-25}}
References
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Category:Australian immunologists
Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences
Category:Fellows of the Australian Academy of Science
Category:Medical doctors from Sydney
Category:Officers of the Order of Australia
Category:Companions of the Order of Australia
Category:Sydney Medical School alumni
Category:University of New South Wales alumni
Category:Academic staff of the University of New South Wales
Category:Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians
Category:Fellows of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians