Keith Cooper is the L. John and Ann H. Doerr Professor in Computational Engineering at Rice University. His primary appointment is in the Department of Computer Science, with a courtesy appointment in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He currently serves as Chair of the Department of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice (January 2019). He has served in a number of other administrative roles. He was the recipient of Rice University’s 2020 Faculty Award for Excellence in University Service and Leadership.
Dr. Cooper’s primary research area has been program analysis and optimization. He was one of the founding members of the compiler group at Rice and continues as an active researcher and mentor. He has more than 75 technical publications and has produced 18 Ph.D.s. Dr. Cooper is a Fellow of the ACM.
Dr. Cooper teaches several courses in compiler construction. With his colleague, Dr. Linda Torczon, he co-authored two editions of a textbook on compiler construction, Engineering a Compiler. A third edition is in preparation. Over the years, he has also taught introductory programming, principles of computing for non-majors, software engineering, and computer organization. In 2019, he received the George R. Brown Award for Superior Teaching.