Professor Charles Cooper
Charles Cooper, a joint Fellow of SPRU and the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) between 1969 and 1981, died on 16 January after a long illness.
Charles came to Sussex to help SPRU and IDS build a new programme of research and teaching about science and technology in developing countries. He brought unique assets with him: degrees in both physics and economics as a basis for interdisciplinary work; a deep sensitivity to the political sources of injustice and inequality, rooted in his South African upbringing; and an astute grasp of the workings of international organisations derived from his previous work with the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development).
In his academic research at Sussex he broke new ground in the 1970s in understanding the relationships between science, technology and industrialisation. He linked that academic work closely to the policy debates around international organisations such as UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization) and the World Bank.
He also led a joint IDS-SPRU group in preparing a wide-ranging report for the UN Advisory Council on Science and Technology in 1970 - radical and controversial at that time, and subsequently referred to in the General Assembly as the 'Sussex Manifesto'.
After a period as deputy director of the IDS, Charles moved for a short time to the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague.
Thereafter he played the lead role in planning the creation of the United Nations University Institute for New Technologies (INTECH) in Maastricht - the only large organisation in the world that is fully committed to policy-oriented research and teaching about science and technology in the developing world. He was then the first director of INTECH.
Sadly his years there were sorely troubled by repeated serious illness, but it is a dual tribute to him that this unique institution has just been given a vote of confidence for the future by its sponsors, as well as a new director: Dr Luc Soete, one of his former DPhil students at Sussex.
Martin Bell, SPRU - Science and Technology Policy Research