Alan Cooper is a Professor of Biophysical Chemistry in the Chemistry Department at Glasgow University, Glasgow, UK. After obtaining a first class honours degree in physics from Manchester University, he gained a diploma for Advanced Studies in Science (with Distinction) on the calculation of dispersion forces and optical properties of helical polynucleotides and a PhD in Biophysics on the thermodynamics of assembly and stability of collagen - both from Manchester University. Since then he has been a SRC Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Molecular Biophysics, Oxford University and a Junior Research Fellow, Wolfson College, Oxford as well as a NIH Research Fellow on the Pathology of… Membranes Training Program in the department of Chemistry, Yale University, USA, before his return to Glasgow University as a Lecturer in Physical Chemistry, then Senior Lecturer, Reader and finally Professor. Until 2009, he was the Principal Editor of the Biophysical Chemistry journal and is on the Editorial boards of the European Biophysics Journal, Journal of the Iranian Chemical Society and BMC Biochemistry. He is an external assessor for various European universities and a member of the Molecular Biosciences Foresight Working Party, the ESF Working Party on post-genome biophysical studies and is on the management committee of COST D22 protein-lipid interaction. His research interests include biophysical chemistry, microcalorimetry; thermodynamics of protein folding, misfolding, aggregation and interactions; biomaterials chemistry, protein foams, nematode polyproteins; peptide-antibiotic interactions, and he has also had over 150 full papers published.