Professor Cyrus Cooper OBE, MA, DM, FRCP, FFPH, FMedSci

Cyrus Cooper is Professor of Rheumatology and Director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Southampton, and Professor of Musculoskeletal Science at the University of Oxford.

He leads an internationally competitive programme of research into the epidemiology of musculoskeletal disorders, most notably osteoporosis. His key research contributions have been: 1) discovery of the developmental influences that contribute to the risk of osteoporosis and hip fracture in late adulthood; 2) demonstration that maternal vitamin D insufficiency is associated with sub-optimal bone mineral accrual in childhood; 3) characterisation of the definition and incidence rates of vertebral fractures; 4) leadership of large pragmatic randomised controlled trials of calcium and vitamin D supplementation in the elderly as immediate preventative strategies against hip fracture.

He is President of the International Osteoporosis Foundation, a non-executive director of University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust, a panel member of the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, an NIHR Senior Investigator, and Associate Editor of Osteoporosis International. He has previously served as Chairman of the MRC Population Health Sciences Research Network, Chairman of the Royal Osteoporosis Society of Great Britain, President of the Bone Research Society of Great Britain, and has worked on numerous Department of Health, European Union and World Health Organization committees. He has published extensively (over 1,200 research papers; hi=211) on the causes and prevention of osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and sarcopenia; he has pioneered clinical studies on the developmental origins of osteoporosis and fracture. In 2016, he was awarded an OBE for services to medical research.