Roland A. Cooper, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at ODU, where he teaches genetics and parasitology. He has a National Institutes of Health-funded research laboratory focusing on mechanisms of drug action and resistance in the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. He is currently working on a funded project titled "Determinants of Growth and Fitness in Drug Resistant Malaria Parasites" with collaborators from University of Notre Dame and Georgetown University.