Alan J. Cooper

Alan J. Cooper (born 1966)^[4] is a New Zealand evolutionary molecular biologist and Ancient DNA researcher. He is the director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, South Australia.^{[5][1][6][7][8][9]}

Early life and education

Cooper was born in Dunedin, New Zealand and grew up in Wellington, New Zealand, where he was involved in cave exploration at university and regional level. He was awarded a PhD from the Victoria University of Wellington in 1994^[10][4] for evolutionary studies of New Zealand birds.^[10] During his PhD he also worked at the University of California, Berkeley supervised by Allan C. Wilson and Svante Pääbo.

Career and research

Cooper is known as one of the pioneers of ancient DNA research, performing some of the first Polymerase chain reaction-based studies with Svante Paabo and Allan C. Wilson at UC Berkeley in 1989. In 2001, he used these methods to characterise the first complete genome sequences from an extinct species, mitochondrial genomes from two New Zealand moa.^[11]

Cooper established the Henry Wellcome Ancient Biomolecules Centre at the University of Oxford in 1999, which he directed until 2005.^[12] He became Professor of Ancient Biomolecules at Oxford in 2002.^[13] In 2004, he was awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Federation Fellowship to establish the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide, South Australia where he is the Director.^[7]

Cooper has analysed ancient DNA from extinct species preserved in permafrost areas of Alaska and the Yukon,^[14] and cave and archaeological deposits around the world. He has published on the evolutionary history of enigmatic extinct species such as: New Zealand moa and Madagascan elephant bird (Aepyornis), the dodo, American lion (P. leo atrox) and cheetah-like cat (Miracinonyx), North and South American horses (stilt-legged horse, Hippidion), steppe bison, bears (Arctodus, U. arctos), cave hyenas (Crocuta spelaea) and the Falkland Islands wolf (Dusicyon australis). He has also shown that the calcified plaque on the teeth of ancient skeletons can be used to reconstruct the evolution of the human microbiome through time.^[15]

In 2000, with Henrik Poinar, he suggested that the standards of much ancient DNA research were insufficient to rule out contamination, especially in studies of ancient humans.^[16] He has also published a series of papers showing that the molecular clock changes speed according to the time period used to measure it.^[17][18]

Awards and honours

• ARC Laureate Fellowship (2014)^[19]
• Royal Society of South Australia Verco Medal (2014)^[20]
• ARC Future Fellowship (2009)^[21]
• ARC Federation Fellowship (2004)^[22]
• Zoological Society of London Medal (2002)^[23]
• Philip Leverhulme Prize (2002)^[24]

References