Aaron Copley

Professor Aaron Copley (BSc PhD DSc) was a respected biochemist and molecular biologist who set up the Pharm in Wales, where he was director in the mid 2000s.

Education
Copley graduated from Sandford High School in California in the spring of 1969 with a scholarship to Harvard University.

He studied Biological Chemistry and Molecular Biology at Harvard for three years, graduating in 1972 in the top 1% of his class with a First Class bachelors degree. During this time, he worked with Dr F.R. Minchin on several published papers which revolutionised the way scholars looked at Molecular Biology. His papers were published by the College press to accompany the honour, and were well received by his peers.

Copley returned to Harvard in 1974 to complete his doctorate winning funding and backing from major pharmacological authors and the US government along the way.

Early career
In 1975, he had a falling out with the FDA following their injunction on the development of a drug that had the potential rejuvenate nervous cells in mammals, and fought a court order which imposed on the research and development of the drug only to lose the battle, forcing him to abandon the project.

He went on to lecture and held residency at John Hopkins in 1978. He later did research at Cambridge, and worked as a Harvard professor of Molecular Pharmacology. Eventually he moved to South Wales, where he set up the Pharm.

Heading the Pharm
He captured alien species, and tried to create vaccines for human illnesses from them. He knew they were going to die but he needed to find a way to cure incurable human illness and he used a species called the Mayfly. He also had a Weevil in containment.

He shot and killed Torchwood member Owen Harper and was shot in the head by Captain Jack moments later while threatening to shoot Martha Jones. Even up to his death, he maintained the fact that what he was doing would work out in the end and that he was close to a "breakthrough". (TV: Reset)