TY - JOUR T1 - An extraordinary story of discovery: an interview with Doctor Max D Cooper JF - Journal of Investigative Medicine JO - J Investig Med DO - 10.1136/jim-2022-002505 SP - jim-2022-002505 AU - Octavian C Ioachimescu AU - Max D Cooper Y1 - 2022/07/12 UR - http://hw-f5-jim.highwire.org/content/early/2022/07/11/jim-2022-002505.abstract N2 - A few weeks ago, I had the honor to sit down (in a Zoom virtual room, figure 1) to interview Dr Max D Cooper, Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, eminent scholar and recipient of the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 2019. He graciously gave us some of his time to chat about his career, to share his thoughts about the past, present and future of immunology and of medicine in general. In 2020, Dr Cooper was awarded at Emory University the renowned John F. Morgan Distinguished Faculty Lecture award, in recognition of his immense contributions in the field of medicine, pathology, immunology and so many other areas.Figure 1 Dr Max D Cooper in a virtual interview with Dr Octavian C Ioachimescu.Octavian Ioachimescu: Dr Cooper, thank you so much for agreeing to do this interview for the Journal of Investigative Medicine (JIM). I really think that this interview will be a major source of inspiration for many investigators, junior faculty and trainees, in a broad swath of medical fields. Allow me to jump right into it: tell us about your early training days—what led you to a career in medicine and your interest in immunology?Max Cooper: I grew up in Mississippi where my parents were educators—my father a mathematician and school superintendent and my mother a classroom teacher. Surrounded by books, I read a lot. Early on, I expressed a desire to become a physician. We lived in a small village so I didn’t know about many occupations, but our local doctor was knowledgeable, reasonably well-off, and highly respected in the community. My father encouraged me to pursue this career path. He had wanted to be a physician himself, but grew up in a large farm family, and … ER -