Rory A. Cooper, PhD

Dr. Cooper received the B.S. and M. Eng degrees in electrical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 1985 and 1986, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering with a concentration in bioengineering from University of California at Santa Barbara in 1989.

He is chairman and professor of the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology, and professor of Bioengineering and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also a professor in the Departments of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System. Dr. Cooper is director and VA Senior Research Career Scientist of the Center of Excellence for Wheelchairs and Related Technology, a VA Rehabilitation Research and Development Center.

He serves or has served on the editorial board of several prominent peer-reviewed journals in the fields of rehabilitation and bioengineering. Dr. Cooper has been selected for numerous prestigious awards, including the IEEE-EMBS Early Career Award (1993), LaRoche College “Thanksgiving Tuesday Award”(1998), the Paralyzed Veterans of America “John Farkas Leadership Award”(1997, 1999), the CSUS “President’s Award for Research and Creative Activity”(1992), and the CalPoly 1999 Honored Alumnus for the College of Engineering (1999), Dion-Johnson Award for Spinal Cord Research (2000), IEEE-USA Professional Service Award (2001). Dr. Cooper has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed journal publications . He is the author of two books: "Rehabilitation Engineering Applied to Mobility and Manipulation”; and “Wheelchair Selection and Configuration”. Dr. Cooper is an elected Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Cooper has been an invited lecturer at many institutions around the world, and was awarded “Honorary Professor” at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has also been elected to Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi honorary societies.

Dr. Cooper is treasurer of RESNA, and a member of the RESNA/ANSI and ISO Wheelchair Standards Committees, and IEEE-EMBS Medical Device Standards Committee. He is a Trustee of the Paralyzed Veterans of America Spinal Cord Research Foundation. In 1988, he was a bronze medalist in the Paralympic Games, Seoul, Republic of Korea. He was on the steering committee for the 1996 Paralympic Scientific Congress held in Atlanta, GA. He is a member of the United States Health Care Finance Administration – Medicare Advisory Committee and the United States Secretary of Veterans Affairs Prosthetics and Special Disability Programs Advisory Committee.