KINGSTON, R.I. – November 12, 2020 – An award-winning professor, writer and founding director and senior research career scientist at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories will discuss “Disability and Technology,” Tuesday, Nov. 17, at 7 p.m., as part of the University of Rhode Island Honors Colloquium.

This year’s colloquium, “Challenging Expectations: Disability in the Twenty-First Century,” coincides with the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and focuses on the views and expectations of those affected by disability, steering away from the impossible to the possible.

The link to the lecture can be found on the day of the event in the colloquium schedule, next to Cooper’s name. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Cooper holds numerous prestigious positions, including associate dean for inclusion and FISA & Paralyzed Veterans of America Distinguished Professor of Rehabilitation Science and Technology and Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. He has published more than 300 articles and three books, including the award winning, Care of the Combat Amputee. FISA stands for Federation of Independent School Alumni Foundation.

He is also the founding director and the VA Senior Research Career Scientist at the Human Engineering Research Laboratories. He holds an adjunct professorship at the Robotics Institute of Carnegie Mellon University and is also a professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland.

A prolific writer, he has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and three books, including the award-winning Care of the Combat Amputee. He has more than 25 patents awarded or pending. A Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors and other scholarly organizations, he is the recipient of the Secretary of Defense Meritorious Civilian Service Medal.

He has served on federal advisory boards in the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs and Health and Human Services. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicines Committee.

An Army veteran with a spinal cord injury, he won a bronze medal in the Paralympic Games in Seoul, South Korea in 1988.

Cooper holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, a Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering with a concentration in bioengineering from the University of California at Santa Barbara and an Honorary Doctorate from Xi’an Jiaotong University in China.

Gianna Cardarelli, a University of Rhode Island Public Relations major and intern in its Department of Marketing and Communications, wrote this press release.