Brian P Coppola is the founder and first director of Fratelli Coppola.
Brian graduated from Pinkerton Academy (Derry, NH) in 1974, and received a BS in chemistry from the University of New Hampshire, graduating magna cum laude, in 1978. His doctoral degree in organic chemistry is from the University of Wisconsin – Madison, in 1984, was awarded two years after beginning his career as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. In 1986, he began his career-long position as a faculty member in the department of chemistry at the University of Michigan.
His position at Michigan stands as an early and significant example of supporting the interdisciplinary combination of chemistry and post-secondary education as a specialization. He is one of four case studies comprising a book that looked in detail at such positions in the United States (Balancing Acts by Mary Taylor Huber, 2004). He helped build a program for future faculty education within the Michigan department, providing opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, as well as postdocs, to collaborate with chemistry faculty members on education projects in the same way they collaborate on laboratory research. An innovative educator, he has also earned a number of noteworthy awards for his contributions to teaching and learning.
Over the years, outside of his professional objectives, he has curated a collection of art, including commissions, which incorporated a variety of genres that interested him, particularly the original art from comic books and comic strips, oil paintings (realism), jewelry and antiquities, and Japanese woodblock prints.