Richard Stanley Cooper (born June 7, 1945) is an American cardiologist and epidemiologist who is Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences at

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic Church, ...

Stritch School of Medicine The Stritch School of Medicine is the medical school affiliated with Loyola University Chicago. It is located at the heart of the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. The medical campus includes Foster G. McGaw Hospital, Ca ...

. He is known for researching

hypertension Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a Chronic condition, long-term Disease, medical condition in which the blood pressure in the artery, arteries is persistently elevated. High blood pressure usually does not cause symptoms i ...

and other cardiac diseases in individuals of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

n ancestry.

Early life and education

Cooper was born on June 7, 1945, in

Little Rock Little Rock is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Arkansas, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arkansas. The city's population was 202,591 as of the 2020 census. The six-county Central Arkan ...

Arkansas Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the West South Central region of the Southern United States. It borders Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, Texas to the southwest, and Oklahoma ...

. Growing up in Arkansas, he often witnessed

racial discrimination Racial discrimination is any discrimination against any individual on the basis of their Race (human categorization), race, ancestry, ethnicity, ethnic or national origin, and/or Human skin color, skin color and Hair, hair texture. Individuals ...

against

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

s, and this later inspired him to research

racial disparities in health Race and health refers to how being identified with a specific race influences health. Race is a complex concept that has changed across chronological eras and depends on both self-identification and social recognition. In the study of race an ...

. He worked with

Charles Rotimi Charles Nohuoma Rotimi (born 1957) is the Scientific Director of the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). He joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2008 as the inaugural Director of the Trans-NIH Center for Research in Ge ...

on the

TCF7L2 Transcription factor 7-like 2 (T-cell specific, HMG-box), also known as TCF7L2 or TCF4, is a protein acting as a transcription factor that, in humans, is encoded by the ''TCF7L2'' gene. The TCF7L2 gene is located on chromosome 10q25.2–q25.3, co ...

protein and susceptibility for

Type 2 diabetes Type 2 diabetes (T2D), formerly known as adult-onset diabetes, is a form of diabetes mellitus that is characterized by high blood sugar, insulin resistance, and relative lack of insulin. Common symptoms include increased thirst, frequent ...

in Western African populations. He was educated at the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...

, graduating with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in English in 1967, and the University of Arkansas Medical School, from which he received his

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

in 1971. He completed training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Montefiore Hospital Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx from 1971 to 1975, and subsequently received training in epidemiology, nutrition and preventive cardiology on an NIH Fellowship at Northwestern University.

Academic career

Cooper taught at

Northwestern University Medical School Northwestern or North-western or North western may refer to: * Northwest, a direction * Northwestern University, a private research university in Evanston, Illinois ** The Northwestern Wildcats, this school's intercollegiate athletic program ** No ...

from 1978 to 1983, and at the

University of Illinois College of Medicine The University of Illinois College of Medicine offers a four-year program leading to the MD degree at four different sites in Illinois: Chicago, Peoria, Illinois, Peoria, Rockford, Illinois, Rockford, and formerly Champaign–Urbana metropolitan ...

while serving as Director of Clinical Epidemiology at Cook County Hospital from 1985 to 1989. He joined Loyola as the Anthony B. Traub Professor and Chair of the Department of Public Health Sciences in 1989. Cooper initiated a long-running research program on cardiovascular disease in the African diaspora, involving study sites in Nigeria, Cameroon, St. Lucia, Barbados, Jamaica and metropolitan Chicago. This work has continued from 1991 through 2020, subsequently including research on obesity, diabetes and other cardio-metabolic syndromes. The project demonstrated the paramount role of social conditions and environmental exposures to risk of hypertension and obesity, providing a new perspective critical of the theory of "genetic susceptibility" among populations of African descent to these conditions that is frequently advocated within the scientific literature in the United States. He traveled widely in Africa and the Caribbean and held academic appointments at the University of Ibaban, Ibadan, Nigeria, and the University of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica. Cooper served as Director of a CDC-sponsored training program on prevention of cardiovascular diseases in Africa for 5 years from 2002–2007. He is founding

editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...

of the journal '' Ethnicity & Disease''. He received an

NIH MERIT award The NIH MERIT award (Method To Extend Research in Time) Award (R37) was created by the National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical an ...

in 1998 for research in the African diaspora, and served as a member of the National Advisory Council of the

National Human Genome Research Institute The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) is an institute of the National Institutes of Health, located in Bethesda, Maryland. NHGRI began as the Office of Human Genome Research in The Office of the Director in 1988. This Office transi ...

from 2008 to 2011. He has written widely on the concept of race, and its implications for health inequities and medical care. Recent publications have described both strengths and potential limitations of the application of genomic technology and the concept of "Precision Medicine" to prevention and treatment of common disease.

References

External links

Faculty page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Richard S. Living people 1945 births American cardiologists American epidemiologists People from Little Rock, Arkansas Physicians from Arkansas Medical journal editors Loyola University Chicago faculty University of Pennsylvania alumni University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences alumni Feinberg School of Medicine faculty University of Illinois faculty American public health doctors