Rory A. Cooper

In 2019, the United States Patent and Trademark Office added Cooper to the Inventor Collectible Card Series.

Cooper has received many honors; among the most recent are a 2017 Fellowship in the American Association for the Advancement of Science for engineering, recipient of one of the 2017 Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals, recognition as a "Health Hero" in Oprah Magazine, and the 2016 Marlin Mickle Outstanding Innovator Award.

In 2014, Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh appointed Cooper a Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army.

In appreciation of his work and accomplishments, the Pittsburgh City Council proclaimed June 17, 2014, as "Dr. Rory A. Cooper Day."

Cooper has been a National Academies of Sciences Distinctive Voices Lecturer, ACC Distinguished Lecturer, Smithsonian Institution ADA 25th Anniversary Festival Speaker, Young Lecturer at the Royal Military College of Canada, and inaugural AAAS-Lemelson Foundation Invention Ambassador. He has also been elected to Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi, and Sigma Xi honorary societies. Cooper is a former President of RESNA, and a member of the IEEE-EMBS Medical Device Standards Committee. Additionally, he has been a member of the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – Medicare Advisory Committee, U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Prosthetics and Special Disability Programs Advisory Committee, Chair of the National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research, National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, U.S. Department of Defense Health Board Subcommittee on Amputation and Orthopedics, Board of Directors of Easter Seals, National Academy of Medicine Committee on Assistive Products and Devices, and National Academy of Sciences Keck Foundation Initiative on Human Health Span Steering Committee.

At the 32nd National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG) concluded on June 30, 2012 Richmond, Virginia, Cooper earned 5 gold medals in swimming.

The July 26, 2010 issue of Popular Science profiled Cooper, and a photo of him with a robotic wheelchair he invented was the issue's centerfold. Cooper and his inventions were also the cover story of the May 2017 issue of New Mobility. Additionally, Cooper was featured as the cover story of the September 2019 issue of Inventors Digest.

In 2009, Cooper was featured on a special edition Cheerios cereal box to celebrate his accomplishments.

Cooper served as the Chair of the Local Organizing Committee for the National Veterans Wheelchair Games held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1998 and 2011.

Cooper was on the steering committee for the 1996 Paralympic Scientific Congress held in Atlanta, GA, and was the Sports Scientist for the 2008 U.S. Paralympic Team in Beijing, China. He also received the 2013 International Paralympic Scientific Achievement Award. He volunteered his expertise as a member of the US Paralympic staff in 1992, 1996, and 2008.

From 1989 to 1994, Cooper was an assistant professor in Bioengineering at Sacramento State University. In 1994, Cooper became an Associate Professor at the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh (obtaining full professorship in 1998). Also in 1994, he founded the Human Engineering Research Laboratories, which includes the VA Center for Wheelchairs and Associated Rehabilitation Engineering. He served as Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh from 1997 to 2018.

At the 1988 Paralympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, Cooper received a Bronze Medal in the 4x400-meter wheelchair relay.

Cooper received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo in 1985 and an electrical engineering M.Eng from Cal Poly in 1986. 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.

Cooper has been a competitor in the National Veterans Wheelchair Game since 1983 winning over 200 medals in total in such sports a slalom, track, swimming, table-tennis, and hand-cycle.

While stationed in Germany in 1980, he was hit by a bus while riding a bicycle. As a result, he became paralyzed from the waist down.

Cooper enlisted in the United States Army in 1976 and was assigned to the 3rd Ordnance Battalion, 32nd Air Defense Artillery Command with U.S. Army Europe and was later attached to the 5th Signal Command, USAREUR, and the U.S. Military Community Activity Worms, 21st Support Command.

In December 1972, Cooper became an Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America). He was profiled in the Winter 2019 issue of Eagles' Call magazine.