Ambassador Henry F. Cooper, a Clemson engineering graduate with a Ph.D. from NYU, served in the U.S. Air Force, was Science Advisor to the Air Force Weapons Laboratory, Deputy Assistant Air Force Secretary for Strategic and Space Systems, Assistant Director for Strategic Systems of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, President Reagan's Negotiator for Defense and Space Systems with the Soviet Union and President George H.W. Bush's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) Director. In the private sector he was a Clemson Engineering Mechanics Instructor, a member of the technical staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories and R&D Associates, Senior Vice President of Jaycor, a Visiting Fellow of the Heritage Foundation, Chairman of High Frontier and Chairman of Applied Research Associates.