Alexander Cools

Alexander Rudolf "Lex" Cools (The Hague, 1941 – Nijmegen, 7 September 2013) was a Dutch neuroscientist. He was interested in the pharmacology of behavior.

Alexander Cools
Born	September 14?, 1941 The Hague, Netherlands
Died	September 7, 2013(2013-09-07) (aged 71) Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	Radboud University Nijmegen
Known for	Research on dopamine and the basal ganglia
Awards	Distinguished Achievement Award (EBPS)
Scientific career
Fields	Psychoneuropharmacology
Institutions	Radboud University Nijmegen
Thesis	The Caudate Nucleus and Neurochemical Control of Behaviour: The Function of Dopamine and Serotonin in the Caput Nuclei Caudati of Cats (1973)
Doctoral advisor	Jacques van Rossum, Jo Vossen
Influences	Jacques van Rossum, Adriaan Kortlandt
Signature

Cools got his Doctor of Philosophy in 1973 at the Radboud University Nijmegen.^[1] He was a professor in Nijmegen from 1985 until his retirement in 2006.^[2][3]

A special issue of the scientific journal Behavioural Pharmacology was dedicated to his memory in 2014.^[4] Cools was one of the founders of the European Behavioural Pharmacology Society. He became its second president.^[3] He received that society's Distinguished Achievement Award in 2003.^[3]

Cools was the first to propose (1976) the existence of different types of dopamine receptors.^[5] This claim is correct but was initially not believed.^[3] Cools is also known for his work on the basal ganglia.^[3][2][4]