L. Stephen Coles

Leslie Stephen Coles (January 19, 1941 – legal death December 3, 2014) was an American biogerontologist. With Steven M. Kaye, he founded the Gerontology Research Group in 1990. Coles was a visiting scholar in the computer science department at the University of California, Los Angeles, and an assistant researcher in the Department of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine.

Coles had discussed cryonics with several knowledgeable individuals but had rejected it, apparently on the grounds that cracking would make revival unlikely. Further conversations and discussions of the evidence changed his mind late in 2014.

Coles suffered from pancreatic cancer. In November 2014, he entered a hospital in Las Vegas because the cancer had compromised his immune system, allowing bacterial pneumonia to develop, which resulted in serious pulmonary edema. During this time, he decided that cryonics did in fact give him a chance and that he wanted to do it. However, he lacked funding. An unusual agreement was worked out that allowed him to be cryopreserved with only a small fraction of the cost provided by donations and the rest covered by the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. In return, Coles agreed to allow Alcor to cryopreserve his brain only (without the skull), and to do research (including tissue biopsy and examination for ice formation and cracking). His identifier is A-2786.

Coles is a signatory of the Scientists' Open Letter on Cryonics, having signed it on October 7, 2006.