Meet Rory Cooper, a Hall of Fame innovator who’s been harnessing tech to build better wheelchairs for three decades

Rory Cooper, director of the Human Engineering Research Laboratories and Distinguished Professor of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh, deserves his flowers.

And there are many to point to.

Here are just a few of Cooper’s recent accolades for his transformative work in biomedical engineering:

• Elected to the National Academy of Engineering Class of 2024
• Awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the nation’s highest honor for technological achievement, in 2023
• Inducted into National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2023
• Named to the United States Olympians and Paralympians Association’s Executive Committee in 2024
• Joined the board of directors of the Army Heritage Center Foundation

That doesn’t even include the Rory Cooper trading cards.

For more than 30 years, the assistant vice chancellor for research for STEM-health sciences collaborations has been using applied science to solve common problems faced by disabled veterans and other wheelchair users, both groups in which he counts himself. Among the innovations emerging from his research are a hand-rim for manual wheelchairs that eases the stress of moving and stopping and a digital joystick for electric-powered wheelchairs that compensates for hand tremors.

His work is among the finest examples of how Pitt’s researchers are pioneering new fields of technology and entrepreneurship that push the edge of what’s possible.

Photography by Tom Altany