Biography

After receiving his B.S. from Florida State University and competing for 5 years as a professional waterskier, Dr. James (Jimi) Cook completed his DVM in 1994 and his PhD in 1998. In 1999, he founded the Comparative Orthopaedic Laboratory at the University of Missouri, a multi-disciplinary team of physicians, veterinarians, engineers, and basic scientists dedicated to translational orthopaedic research. He has over 160 peer-reviewed publications, has received over $20 million in research funding, has received numerous awards including America’s Best Veterinarian (2007), holds 14 US Patents, and has seen 3 biomedical devices through FDA approval to human clinical trials. He is currently Director of The Comparative Orthopaedic Laboratory and the William and Kathryn Allen Distinguished Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery, and he serves as Director of the Division of Research for the Department of Orthopaedics at the University Hospital’s Missouri Orthopaedic Institute. He is also co-founder of Be The Change Volunteers, ¬an NGO dedicated to building schools in remote villages in the developing world, whose teams have built 28 educational facilities in 15 countries and provided educational opportunities to more than 5,000 students.