Joel E. Cohen

Joel E. Cohen is a mathematical biologist. He is currently Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of Populations at the Rockefeller University and a professor of populations at the Earth Institute of Columbia University in New York City.

Cohen grew up in Michigan and graduated from Cranbrook School in 1961. He received his B.A. in applied mathematics from Harvard University in the 1960s, and earned a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from Harvard in 1970. In 1973, he receieved another Ph.D. from Harvard, this time in the field of population sciences and tropical public health.

He has since taught at Yale University, Cambridge University, Stanford University, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, the National University of San Luis, and the University of California at Berkeley. He has held numerous fellowships, including the Harvard Society of Fellows, John Simon Guggenheim Foundatio, 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 Shreps Award from the Population Association of America, the Distinguished Statistical Ecologist Award, and the Tyler Prize for Enviornmental Achievement in 1999. He is also currently a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

Joel E. Cohen is the author 12 books and 325 articles, including:

How Many People Can the Earth Support? (1995)

Comparison of Stochastic Matrices, with Applications in Information Theory, Statistics, Economics and Population Sciences (1998)

Forecasting Product Liability Claims: Epidemiology and Modeling in the Manville Asbestos Case (2004)