Zola Cooper

Cooper was a dermatologist,^[4] cancer researcher and pathologist at the Barnard Free Skin and Cancer Hospital.^[5][6] She studied the structural changes of skin exposed to radiation,^[7] and the effect of hormones on hair growth and distribution.^[8] In 1940, she joined the faculty at her alma mater's School of Medicine to teach pathology courses. From 1947 to 1949, while her mother was living in Oklahoma City,^[2] she was an assistant professor of histology at the University of Oklahoma's medical school.^[9] In 1949 she was made an assistant professor of pathology at WashU.^[3][10] She also spoke to community groups about cancer and other topics.^[11][12][13]

Her research was published in Archives of Dermatology,^[14] The American Journal of Anatomy,^[15] The American Journal of Cancer,^[16] Journal of the National Cancer Institute,^[17] Cancer Research,^[18] and Experimental Biology and Medicine.^[19] She contributed a chapter on skin for the textbook Cowdry's Problems of Ageing (1952).^[20]

Cooper died suddenly from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1954, aged 50 years, at her home in St. Louis.^[10][21] The annual Zola Cooper Seminar is named in her memory,^[22][23] and promotes learning in clinical dermatology and dermatopathology.^[24][25]