astronomy

Joel E. Cohen

Joel E. Cohen is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Joel E. Cohen rather than just read about it. In short: Joel Ephraim Cohen NAS AAA&S APS CFR AAAS (born February 10, 1944) is a mathematical biologist. He is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Populations at the Rockefeller University in New York City as of 2025 and at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, and th…

Key takeaways

Joel E. Cohen belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Joel E. Cohen to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Joel E. Cohen from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Joel Ephraim Cohen NAS AAA&S APS CFR AAAS (born February 10, 1944) is a mathematical biologist. He is Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Populations at the Rockefeller University in New York City as of 2025 and at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, where he holds a joint appointment in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology, and the School of International and Public Affairs. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Education Cohen grew up in Washington, D.C., and Michigan and graduated from Cranbrook School in 1961. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University in 1965, and earned a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Harvard in 1970. In 1973, he received from Harvard another doctorate in population sciences and tropical public health. He received an honorary master's degree from the University of Cambridge in 1974.

Research Cohen has since taught or lectured at Harvard University, Yale University, Stanford University, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, the National University of San Luis, Argentina, the Central University of Venezuela, and the University of California, Berkeley. He has also held numerous fellowships, including ones with the Harvard Society of Fellows, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. He was named "One of America's Top 100 Young Scientists" by Science Digest in 1984. His research has won him numerous awards, including the Sheps Award from the Population Association of America in 1992, the Distinguished Statistical Ecologist Award in 1994, the first Olivia Schieffelin Nordberg Award "for excellence in writing in the population sciences" in 1997, the Fred L. Soper Prize in 1998 of the Pan American Health Organization for his collaborative work on Chagas' disease, and the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 1999. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and has served on the governing boards of all three organizations. He served as a Special Master and member of the Selection Panel in the silicone gel breast implant products liability litigation before the United States District Court, Northern District of Alabama (Southern Division) in 1996; and as a U.S. Federal Court-appointed neutral expert (under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 706) for projection of asbestos-related claims against the Manville Personal Injury Settlement Trust, in the combined asbestos litigation in the Eastern and Southern Districts of New York, 1991–1995. He was a consultant to the law firm of Milbank, Tweed, Hadley and McCloy, New York, on the epidemiology of asbestos-related diseases from 1982 to 1986. Cohen was a member of the Board of Directors of The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA, 2000–2009, during which he co-chaired the Science Council, 2005–2009. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees of the New York State Nature Conservancy, 2001–2010, the Population Reference Bureau, Washington, DC, 2004–2010, and the Committee on Science, Technology and Law of the National Research Council, Washington, DC, 2000–2009.

Personal life He was married to Audrey J. Biller from 1970 to 2002. Their son is Adam Cohen, Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology and of Physics at Harvard University. Their daughter is Zoe Cohen, a manager at Doximity in San Francisco.

Publications Cohen is the author or editor of 14 books and over 370 articles, including:

Food webs and niche space How Many People Can the Earth Support? Comparison of Stochastic Matrices, with Applications in Information Theory, Statistics, Economics and Population Sciences Forecasting Product Liability Claims: Epidemiology and Modeling in the Manville Asbestos Case Educating All Children: A Global Agenda International Perspectives on the Goals of Universal Basic and Secondary Education Mathematics Is Biology's Next Microscope Human population: the next half century The population biology of invasive species Food web patterns and their consequences

References

External links Video: Human population to 2050: problems and opportunities, Collège de France, Paris, France, 2009 Video interview at Big Think 2010 Archived 2012-03-19 at the Wayback Machine Video: How many people can the Earth support? Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Washington, DC 2010 on YouTube "Mathematical Biologist Pushes Frontiers of Knowledge" 2013 Research news article published by National Science Foundation. "Biology's Coefficient: Joel Cohen uses the tools of mathematics to deconstruct questions of life" 2013 profile published by The Scientist.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Joel E. Cohen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Joel E. Cohen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Joel E. Cohen before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Joel E. Cohen ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Joel E. Cohen

In research: Joel E. Cohen appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Joel E. Cohen in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Joel E. Cohen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1944 births, American theoretical biologists, Columbia University faculty, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Joel E. Cohen outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Joel E. Cohen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Joel E. Cohen means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Joel E. Cohen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Joel E. Cohen in simple terms?

Why does Joel E. Cohen matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Joel E. Cohen?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Joel E. Cohen.