Irwin Kopin

Background

Kopin was born in New York, where his father ran a mirror factory.

Education

He first attended the City College of New York for two years, where he excelled in mathematics.

Career

Two years later he transferred to McGill University in Canada, there completing his Bachelor of Science in biochemistry in 1951 and then his Doctor of Medicine in 1955. Rita went on to a career as a museum education consultant. After his medical school graduation, Kopin did his residency at Boston City Hospital.

When he was informed in his second year there that he was to be drafted, he found a government post with the United States Public Health Service, where he worked as a statistician on a tuberculosis research team, before transferring to the National Institute of Mental Health, where he worked under Seymour Kety.

At the National Institute of Mental Health, Kopin began his research collaboration with Julius Axelrod. In 1968, Kety left National Institute of Mental Health for Harvard.

Axelrod did not want to take on administrative responsibilities, and so Kopin took over the position of lab chief Among his research assistants were William East. Bunney and Frederick K. Goodwin.

In 1984, Kopin moved from the National Institute of Mental Health to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to become scientific director of the Division of Intramural at the invitation of Murray Goldstein.

He retired in 1994, naming Zach Hall as his successor. At National Institute of Mental Health, he came up with the false neurotransmitter theory to explain the action of drugs such as monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and studied the relationship between the neurotoxin MPTP and Parkinson"s disease. Selected papers include:

Burns, RS.

Chiueh, Central Committee.

Markey, SP. Ebert, Microbiology and Botany. Jacobowitz, Doctor of Medicine. Kopin, IJ (1983-1907-01).

"A primate model of parkinsonism: selective destruction of dopaminergic neurons in the pars compacta of the substantia nigra by North-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 80 (14): 4546–4550. doi:10.1073/pnas.80.14.4546.

Achievements

• At McGill, outside of his academic work Kopin was a member of the swim team, as a member of which he became famous for a 16-meet winning streak in the 1949–1950 season which was only brought to an end by Olympian Joe Verdeur of Louisiana Salle University.

Membership

By 2000, Kopin had published 710 papers, continuing his work with members of his former laboratory even after his formal retirement.