Bryn Athyn College Alumni Magazine Winter 2015 | Page 22

InREMEMBERING
Memoriam
faculty spotlight

SHERRI COOPER
By David Cooper

T

he College community lost one of its own
recently. Biology professor Dr. Sherri Cooper
passed into the spiritual world at 11:23 P.M.
on 11/23/2015. At her memorial service, the Rev. Dr.
Jonathan Rose observed that her time came “when
the hour met the day and the day met eternity.…”
Dr. Sherri Cooper joined the faculty at Bryn
Athyn College in 1999, mentored many students
through their undergraduate research projects,
and taught courses in biology, ecology, botany,
limnology, and environmental science. She was
promoted to associate professor and granted tenure
in 2006. Dr. Cooper served as head of the biology
major from 2001 to 2013, head of the mathematics
and science division in 2009, and as chair of the
science department from 2010 to 2013. She served
on the Doering Center design committee and had
a strong influence on the specifications for and
layout of the science labs—spaces that facilitate
collaborative research—and in 2009 she oversaw the

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science department’s move from Benade Hall to
the new Grant R. Doering Center for Science and
Research.
Dr. Cooper came to Bryn Athyn following her
PhD work at Johns Hopkins and research positions
at the University of Maryland and Duke University.
During this time, she established herself as a
groundbreaking researcher in estuarine paleoecology.
Her publications on diatom assemblages in estuarine
sediment cores gained international attention in
her field. Her work reveals the effects of large-scale
changes in land use near major estuaries such as the
Chesapeake Bay, going back in time by 500 or more
years.
Dr. Cooper brought to Bryn Athyn her passion
for research and she forwarded Bryn Athyn’s research
program in several ways. She began serving on the
College’s research committee almost immediately
upon joining the faculty and she chaired the
committee from 2010 through 2013. She also