Jindřich Kopeček

Jindřich (Henry) Kopeček (born January 27, 1940, in Strakonice, Czech Republic) is a polymer chemist and pharmaceutical scientist notable as one of the pioneers in drug delivery. He is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Utah in Pharmaceutics & Pharmaceutical Chemistry, and Bioengineering, and has been an editorial board member of 16 international scientific journals, and a fellow at 13 scientific societies.
Dr. Kopeček has made significant contribution to the developments of biomedical applicable hydrogels and polymeric drug conjugates. He was a member of the research group at Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences where polymeric soft contact lenses was invented. His lab designed and developed N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) copolymer-drug conjugates as a lysosomal delivery vehicle to cancer cells. The concept of using poly(HPMA) as polymeric drug carriers has opened a new perspective in modern pharmaceutical science, and developed into the first polymer-drug conjugates entering clinical trials. For these contributions, he was elected as a member of the United States National Academy of Engineering in 2011.

Dr. Kopeček received his Ph.D. training in macromolecular chemistry at the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (IMC) and received a D.Sc. degree in chemistry from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. Before joining the University of Utah in 1986, he served as a principal investigator at the IMC (1972–1988).

Dr. Kopeček is also an elected member of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (1995) and American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (1994). He has served as President of the Controlled Release Society (1995–1996), Co-Director of Center for Controlled Chemical Delivery at the University of Utah (1986–present), and Chair of the Biomaterials and Interfaces Study Section at United States National Institutes of Health (2003–2006).

His research has high impact in areas of bioconjugate chemistry, biorecognition of macromolecules, developments of drug delivery systems and self-assembled biomaterials. He has authored more than 400 scientific publications cited over 12,500 times. Many of his research has over the years advanced from concept to clinic and applied to a variety of different fields. Hydrogels from his laboratory have been in clinical uses, and HPMA copolymer-anticancer drug conjugates are in clinical trials. During his career, he has trained many successful chemists and pharmaceutical scientists all over the world.

• Distinguished International Scientist Award, Japanese Biomaterials Society (2006)
• Heyrovský Medal for merit in the chemical sciences, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (2003)
• AAPS PharmSci and AAPS PharmSciTech Outstanding Use of Technology Award, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (2003)
• Paul Dawson Biotechnology Award, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (2001)
• Millennial Pharmaceutical Scientist, Millennial World Congress of Pharmaceutical Sciences (2000)
• Founders Award, Controlled Release Society (1999)
• Clemson Award for Basic Research, Society for Biomaterials (1995)
• Distinguished Research Award, University of Utah (1993)