About the Cooper Award

About the Award

The Cooper Award (Royal Society Te Apārangi Early Career Research Excellence Award for Technology, Applied Science and Engineering) is awarded annually.  

It is named after Dr E.R Cooper, the first Director of the Dominion Physical Laboratory from 1939 to 1950. Dr Cooper subsequently held the position of Assistant Secretary (Physics and Engineering) of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research until his untimely death in 1952.

The Cooper Award was first awarded in 2017 as part of a suite of new awards for Early Career Researchers. The inaugural winner was Associate Professor Geoff Rodgers, University of Canterbury, for developing new technology for earthquake-safe buildings that do not require repairing after large earthquakes. 

About the Cooper Medal (discontinued)

The Cooper Medal was previously awarded biennially to the researcher (or researchers) working within New Zealand who has published outstanding original research within the fields of physics and engineering that either addresses a specific need or is likely to have beneficial impact in or for Aotearoa.

The Cooper Medal was first awarded in 1965 from the E.R Cooper Memorial Fund by Royal Society Te Apārangi on behalf of the Technical Advisory Committee of the Dominion Physical Laboratory. The Cooper Medal was awarded up to and including 2016 before it was agreed for the Medal to be discontinued and the name changed to the Cooper Award.