Adam Cohen (scientist)

Last updated
Adam Ezra Cohen
Born
New York City, New York, U.S.
Education Hunter College High School
Alma mater
Scientific career
Institutions

Adam Ezra Cohen (born 1979) is a Professor of Chemistry, Chemical Biology, and Physics at Harvard University. He has received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers [1] and been selected by MIT Technology Review to the TR35 list of the world's top innovators under 35. [2]

Contents

Education and academic career

Education

Cohen was born in 1979 in New York City, N.Y. He is the son of Joel E. Cohen, Abby Rockefeller Mauze Professor of Populations at Rockefeller University in New York. He attended Hunter College Elementary School [3] and Hunter College High School, a gifted magnet school in New York City. [4] He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Harvard College with an A.B. in chemistry and physics. He received a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Cambridge University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, in 2003, [5] and a Ph.D. in experimental physics from Stanford in 2006 with W.E. Moerner. Cohen completed a postdoctoral fellowship in chemistry at Stanford University in 2007.

Research

Cohen's research combines building physical tools to probe biological molecules, using nanofabrication, lasers, microfluidics, electronics and biochemistry to generate data. [6] His current research includes single-molecule spectroscopy of microbial rhodopsins, the motion of bacteria in mucus, and new magneto-optical and chiroptical effects in organic molecules. [7]

Inventions

In fifth grade, Cohen invented an "alarm" clock that woke him by playing a prerecorded message. In high school, Cohen created an eye-tracking apparatus for neuroscience experiments to benefit the disabled, an electrochemical hard disk drive, [4] and a device that applies physics to allow his eye movements to maneuver his computer cursor. [8] He also invented and built a nanoscale patterning technique using an electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope in his bedroom, which led to winning the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. [9] [10] His success in the Westinghouse competition led then-mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, to declare March 12, 1997 "Adam Ezra Cohen Day". [11] For his dissertation at Stanford, Cohen invented the Anti-Brownian Electrokinetic trap, known as the ABEL trap, a machine capable of trapping and manipulating individual biomolecules in solution.

Awards

In high school, Cohen won the Westinghouse Science Talent Search, now Intel Science Talent Search, for an invention that involved building a scanning tunneling microscope in his bedroom. [9] He was also inducted into the National Gallery for America’s Young Inventors for the same invention in 1998. [12] In 2007, he was named to the MIT Technology Review TR35 as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35. [13] [2] In 2012, Popular Science named Cohen one of the "Brilliant 10: the 10 most promising young scientists working today". In 2010 he won the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers under the Department of Defense. [1] and a NIH Director's New Innovator Award. [14] In 2014, he won the inaugural national Blavatnik National Award for Young Scientists, awarded by the Blavatnik Family Foundation and the New York Academy of Sciences to "celebrate America’s most innovative and promising faculty-rank scientists and engineers". [15] [16]

Liberia

Cohen and fellow scientist Benjamin Rapoport have visited Liberia working on science education. On their first trip in June 2009, the two toured the nation, while in 2010 they conducted an intensive training program at the University of Liberia that combined science basics, classroom teaching, laboratory techniques, and independent research. [17]

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References

  1. 1 2 "President Honors Outstanding Early-Career Scientists". Office of Science and Technology Policy . Archived from the original on 2017-01-28. Retrieved 2011-05-03– via National Archives.
  2. 1 2 "2007 YOUNG INNOVATORS UNDER 35, Adam Cohen, 28. Harvard University, Making molecules motionless". Technology Review. MIT. October 3, 2009. Archived from the original on April 16, 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  3. ↑ Steinberg, Jacques (11 March 1997). "'Electrochemical Paintbrush' Wins Westinghouse Science Competition". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 24 October 2018. Retrieved 14 February 2017.
  4. 1 2 "Lemelson-MIT Program". web.mit.edu.[ dead link ]
  5. ↑ "Careers: Young inventor". Chemistry World. Royal Society of Chemistry. February 2008. Archived from the original on October 21, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  6. ↑ "The Cohen Group". Archived from the original on 2011-06-28. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  7. ↑ "Stocks". investing.businessweek.com. Retrieved 2018-10-24.[ dead link ]
  8. ↑ "Adam E. Cohen". Fifteen Minutes. The Harvard Crimson. April 28, 2009. Archived from the original on October 6, 2012. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  9. 1 2 "Student Inventor from New York City Wins $40,000 Scholarship In 56th Westinghouse Science Talent Search". Archived from the original on 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2018-10-02.
  10. ↑ "YOUNG MISTER WIZARD WESTINGHOUSE PRIZE FOR MANHATTAN TEEN". New York Daily News .
  11. ↑ "Science champs are still big lab rats". Daily News. New York. April 6, 2008. Archived from the original on 2012-05-09. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  12. ↑ "National Gallery for America's Young Inventors". www.nmoe.org. Archived from the original on 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  13. ↑ "2007 Young Innovators Under 35". Technology Review. 2007. Archived from the original on August 6, 2011. Retrieved August 15, 2011.
  14. ↑ "NIH Director's New Innovator Award Program". commonfund.nih.gov. Archived from the original on 2011-09-16. Retrieved 2011-05-03.
  15. ↑ "2014 National Laureates - Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists". blavatnikawards.org. Archived from the original on 2014-08-09. Retrieved 2014-07-29.
  16. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-07-23. Retrieved 2014-07-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ↑ "Basic science Harvard and MIT scientists bolster teaching in war-ravaged Liberia". Harvard Gazette. Harvard. August 3, 2010. Archived from the original on October 5, 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
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