ECTS Steven Boonen Clinical Research Award presented to Professor Cyrus Cooper

The International Osteoporosis Foundation is delighted to announce that the European Calcified Tissue Society (ECTS) has presented the prestigious 2021 ECTS Steven Boonen Clinical Research Award to its President, Professor Cyrus Cooper.

The Award was announced today at the opening of the ECTS Digital Congress, which is being held from May 6-8, 2021.

Upon acceptance of the Award, Professor Cooper stated:

“I am greatly honoured to be the recipient of this prestigious ECTS award and to have been invited to deliver the opening lecture at this eminent Congress. Above all it is a privilege to be recognized by the ECTS membership, and by a respected organization which is renowned its excellence in advancing calcified tissue research within Europe. The International Osteoporosis Foundation is honoured to count the ECTS among its network of international member organizations. Finally, such awards are always the result of large teams of investigators, and I am most grateful to all who have collaborated with me in Southampton, Oxford and worldwide in a research programme which has been a joy to lead.”

The ECTS Steven Boonen Clinical Research Award is granted annually in memory of Professor Steven Boonen, an internationally recognised expert in the field of osteoporosis and metabolic bone disease, who sadly passed away in May 2013. ECTS honours his memory with this annual Award which recognizes individuals who have made significant progress and contribution to the field of bone clinical bone disease research. The recipient of the award is invited to give a lecture at the annual meeting and receives a €10000 grant to contribute to research at his affiliated university.

Professor Cooper is Professor of Rheumatology and Director of the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit; Vice-Dean of Medicine at the University of Southampton; and Professor of Musculoskeletal Science at the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences, 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 which 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 Organisation 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.

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The International Osteoporosis Foundation (IOF) is the world’s largest nongovernmental organization dedicated to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis and related musculoskeletal diseases. IOF members, including committees of scientific researchers as well as 267 patient, medical and research societies, work together to make fracture prevention and healthy mobility a worldwide health care priority. http://www.osteoporosis.foundation @iofbonehealth