chemistry

Lillian Cohen

Lillian Cohen is a chemistry 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 Lillian Cohen rather than just read about it. In short: Lillian Cohen (June 19, 1878 – June 5, 1949) was an American inorganic chemist and chemistry professor at the University of Minnesota. She was the first woman to receive a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Minnesota and the first female member of its chemistry faculty.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Lillian Cohen (June 19, 1878 – June 5, 1949) was an American inorganic chemist and chemistry professor at the University of Minnesota. She was the first woman to receive a doctorate in chemistry from the University of Minnesota and the first female member of its chemistry faculty.

Life and career Educated in the Minneapolis public schools, Cohen received her B.S. degree from the University of Minnesota in 1900, with a major in chemistry and a minor in physics. She received an M.S. the following year, probably under the supervision of Everhart Percy Harding (1870–1932), with whom she published a paper on the preparation of 2,5-dimethylbenzaldehyde in August 1901. After one year as a high school teacher, she returned to her alma mater as a chemistry instructor in 1902.

Works In August 1905, Cohen took a sabbatical year for postgraduate studies at the Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule in Zürich (now the ETH Zurich). After returning to UMN, she began doctoral studies under George B. Frankforter and received her Ph.D. in 1913 with a thesis on "Equilibria in the Systems, Water, Acetone, and Inorganic Salts." She was promoted to assistant professor in 1918 and to associate professor in 1927. Cohen was an active member of Iota Sigma Pi and was elected Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma XI. She was also active in the Minnesota Section of the American Chemical Society. A passionate chemistry educator, Cohen had a deep interest in her students' lives and careers outside the classroom, particularly those of her female students to whom she acted as a "counselor and advisor." In spite of her accomplishments, a letter she wrote in 1946 to university librarian and archivist E.W. McDiarmid suggested her strong resentment at the discrimination she had encountered. For instance, the dean of the chemistry department had requested her to write a departmental history, which had been little appreciated; as Cohen noted, "...President Ford said in effect, my story was not worthy of the sacred name 'History.' " Nor had any of her accompanying photos been returned to her, though both history and photos had been used by others as references. Cohen subsequently donated her files and reference materials to a waste paper drive during World War II, so by the time McDiarmid contacted her about donating her papers to the university, she replied, "So when I leave [the university], there will be just a pension with my name on the payroll to record my 44 happy years of teaching on the campus." She retired from UMN that year as an emerita associate professor; the next female chemistry professor at the university, Marian Stankovich, would be hired in 1980 following a sexual discrimination settlement. Cohen died after a long illness on June 5, 1949.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lillian Cohen

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lillian Cohen claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, 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 Lillian 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 Lillian 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 Lillian Cohen

In research: Lillian Cohen appears in chemistry 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 Lillian 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: Lillian Cohen is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1878 births, 1949 deaths, American women academics, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lillian 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 Lillian Cohen in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lillian 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 Lillian Cohen out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lillian Cohen in simple terms?

Why does Lillian Cohen matter?

Because it connects several chemistry 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 Lillian 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 Lillian Cohen.