Emeritus Professor Ian Cooke       

FRCOG, FMedSci, FRANZCOG (Hon.)

Academic Unit of Reproductive and Developmental Medicine
Level 4, The Jessop Wing
Tree Root Walk
Sheffield  S10 2SF, UK                                                                                         

Tel: +44 (0)114 262 0718
Email: i.d.cooke@sheffield.ac.uk

Biography

I graduated from Sydney University in 1958 and after research training in Aberdeen (Klopper), Stockholm (Diczfalusy) and Cleveland, Ohio (Ryan) and a Senior Lectureship at the Welsh National School of Medicine (Turnbull) I held the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sheffield from 1972-2000 and was then appointed Emeritus.  I was the first sub-specialist in Reproductive Medicine in the UK and created the Harris-Birthright Unit of Reproductive Medicine in the Jessop Hospital for Women with a substantial research output, particularly related to both female and male infertility.

As UK representative on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Fertility Societies (IFFS), I was asked to form an Education Committee and chaired it from 2001-2010, being appointed Director of Education from 2004.  During that time I organised 38 Workshops on Reproductive Medicine in low resource economies in Russia, China, India, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Central and South America.

For IFFS, I was a Co-editor of Surveillance, a worldwide compendium on laws and regulations relating to ART, for the 2007 and 2010 editions (see downloads), increasing its coverage from 57 to 102 countries.  I also negotiated NGO status for IFFS as Liaison Officer to the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2006 and 2009.

I am the Co-ordinator of the Training and Information Cluster in the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) Special Task Force on Infertility and Developing Countries and CEO of the Low Cost IVF Foundation, both organisations working to bring affordable infertility services to the developing world.  I was a founding member of the Foundation with Professors Outi Hovatta (Sweden), Luca Gianaroli (Italy and Switzerland) and Alan Trounson (Australia and USA).

Finally, I am Chair of the Infertility Research Trust, which has supported various scientific projecets, PhD students and training courses relating to human reproduction.  It was established in 1982 and will close in 2012.

Research interests

My current interest is in helpting to co-ordinate Asian centres in Sri Lanka, India and Indonesia and African Centres in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania to develop systems and services to improve the health of potential parents and develop a research capacity to extend these.  I am working with colleagues in Leicester, London and Cardiff and European partners in the Netherlands, Sweden and Italy and also with South Africa, WHO and the Low Cost IVF Foundation.

Teaching interests

In 25 of the 38 IFFS Workshops I gave a number of lectures, arranged discussion groups and maintained communications with the national Fertility Societies, which led to a number of Societies joining the Federation, now numbering 60 countries.  Collaboration with the Royal College of Obstetricians a\nd Gynaecologists (RCOG) in their Eurovision programme for Eastern Europe led to my organising Infertility Workshops in Lithuania, Kosovo and Latvia.  The RCOG's 5-day courses in Reproductive Medicine and in ART, in a joint arrangement with the British Fertility Society and IFFS, was run in Alexandria by video streaming with local discussion groups and two-way communication.

Professional activities

I was an inaugural member of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (1991-1994), Chairman of the British Fertility Society (BFS) 1996-1999 and President 2001-2004.

I was co-organiser and co-chair of two international meetings run in Geneva with WHO, the first in 2001 on Medical, Ethical and Social Aspects of Assisted Reproduction.  In the second, in 2008, I represented the Low Cost IVF Foundation working with the International Committee on Monitoring in ART (ICMART) on Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Common Technology and Management in Low Resource Economics.

I am an Honorary Life Member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, Honorary Member of ESHRE, of IFFS, of the BFS and of five other national fertility societies.

Current projects

I am Chair of the Broomhall Forum, Sheffield, which manages a programme of community development in an area of multi-ethnic, inner-city deprivation.

Key publications

Jones, HW Jr, Cooke I, Kempers R, Brinsden P and Saunders D (2011)  International Federation of Fertility Socieities, Surveillance 2010 (236pp). Preface. Fertility and Sterility 95: 491 (see downloads)

Cooke ID (2010) Mild stimulation, in 2010 Proceedings of the 20th IFFS World Congress on Fertility and Sterility, Munich, September 12-16, 2010.  Ed B Hebdon, L Mettler, H-R Tinneberg Verlagsgesellschaft GmbH, Munchen, 187-193

Ombelet W, Cooke I, Dyer S, Serour G and Devroey P (2008) Infertility and the provision of infertility medical services in developing countries.  Human Reproduction Update 14: 605-621

Cooke ID, Gianaroli L, Hovatta O and Trounson AO (2008) Low Cost IVF Fdn.  Affordable ART and the third world: difficulties to overcome.  Human Reproduction SI: 93-96

Jones HW Jr, Cohen J, Cooke I and Kempers R (2007) IFFS Surveillance 07.  Fertility and Sterility 87: S3-S67

Hovatta O and Cooke I (2006) Cost-effective approaches to in vitro ferilisation: means to improve access.  International Journal of Gynecology and Obstetrics 94: 287-291