Leonard Cook (1924-2016)

Leonard Cook, one of the world's leading psychopharmacologists, passed away on January 30th, 2016 at the age of 91. Dr. Cook was born in Newark, NJ in 1924. He earned a degree in pharmacology from Yale Medical School in 1951 and subsequently joined Smith Kline & French Laboratories where he played a dominant role in the discovery of "Compazine" and "Stelazine", the first drugs for schizophrenia, as well as in the early development of their Department of Pharmacology. Dr. Cook joined Hoffmann-LaRoche in 1969 where he was appointed director of pharmacology and led research in the identification of drugs for treating anxiety. In 1983, he joined DuPont de Nemours as director of their CNS research and expanded their CNS research program to focus on Alzheimer's disease therapy.

Dr. Cook has held academic posts as adjunct professor of pharmacology at Temple Medical School and in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He was also visiting professor of pharmacology at Beijing and Shanghai Medical Schools. Dr. Cook served for many years as a consultant to the National Institute of Drug Abuse, particularly in their pursuit for pharmacological agents useful in treating drug abuse. He also served as a special consultant to the Pentagon.

Dr. Cook was the recipient of the ASPET P.B. Dews Lifetime Achievement Award in Behavioral Pharmacology in 2006.  His lecture was titled "Reflections on my career in psychopharmacology" and was published in The Pharmacologist. Dr. Cook was a member of ASPET since 1955.

Last updated: February 2, 2016