Posted on October 28, 2004 at 1:23 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Dr. William J. Koopman, professor and chair of the department of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), has been named recipient of the 2004 Distinguished Lecturer Award, the highest honor bestowed a UAB faculty member by the UAB Academic Health Center.

Koopman, an internationally renowned expert in the field of rheumatic diseases, will present his talk on November 11 at The Club (1 Robert Smith Drive, Homewood, Alabama). The lecture will follow a reception and dinner beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets are $30 each. For reservations, call the UAB Events Office at (205) 934-0771.

Koopman earned his medical degree from Harvard University and completed residency training at Massachusetts General Hospital before joining the National Institute of Dental Research as a staff fellow in immunology. He joined the UAB faculty in 1977.

Since then, Koopman has made crucial discoveries and contributions to the understanding and management of rheumatic diseases. In the 1980s, The New York Times highlighted his work in developing a mouse model for the human disease, rheumatoid arthritis. Today, he is known worldwide for recognizing and demonstrating the vital role of synovial tissue cells in the inflammation and joint destruction caused by rheumatoid arthritis.

His pioneering work in the molecular biology of rheumatoid arthritis has created promising new possibilities for treatment. His research of a protein called immunoglobulin and its relationship to rheumatoid disease has been used to develop such therapies as arthritis-fighting proteins, a monoclonal antibody and a T-cell receptor peptide vaccine.

Koopman’s dedication to improving the lives of arthritis patients has mirrored his commitment to strengthening UAB’s Academic Health Center. As director of UAB’s Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology, he more than doubled the number of faculty and led the division to national prominence. U.S.News & World Report has ranked the UAB rheumatology program among the best in America for 13 consecutive years.

Koopman served as founding director of the UAB Arthritis and Musculoskeletal Diseases Center, setting in motion innovative research, teaching, training, patient care and community outreach initiatives that continue today. One initiative he was instrumental in establishing — a partnership with Sankyo Co., Ltd. of Japan to develop new rheumatoid arthritis therapies — has become the largest privately sponsored research program in UAB history.

In 1995, when Koopman was named chair of the UAB Department of Medicine, he became the only UAB faculty member ever to hold three endowed chairs — the Anna Lois Waters Chair of Medicine in Rheumatology, the Howard L. Holley Chair of Medicine in Rheumatology and the Spencer Chair in Medical Science Leadership. Under his direction, the department has created academic divisions in human gene therapy and genetic and translational medicine, established several new research centers and increased the size of its faculty.

Early in his UAB tenure, he challenged the department to earn at least $100 million in research support each year. Today, the department has far surpassed that goal. Ranked 11th among departments of medicine nationwide in the amount of funding received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the department garners more research support than any other at UAB.

Among his professional associations, for four years Koopman chaired the Board of Scientific Counselors for NIH’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. He also has served as president of both the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the UAB Health Services Foundation and the UAB Health System.

The author of nearly 270 papers, former editor of the Journal Arthritis and Rheumatism, and co-editor of the Clinical Primer of Rheumatology and Arthritis and Allied Conditions, he is listed among the most cited scientists by Clinical Medicine.

Koopman’s many accomplishments have been rewarded with prestigious awards, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, election to Britain’s Royal Society of Medicine and receipt of the Carol-Nachman Prize in rheumatology research. In addition, the William J. Koopman Arthritis Research Endowment Fund was established at UAB in his honor.