- Jack Cohen (scientist)
Jack Cohen, FIBiol (born
19 September 1933 ) is a British reproductive biologist also known for his popular science books and involvement withscience fiction .Academic career
He studied at University College, Hull obtaining a
BSc (external degree of the University of London) in 1954.He obtained hisPhD inZoology at the same institution, (by thenHull University ) in 1957. He went to theUniversity of Birmingham for post-doctoral work, and was appointed Lecturer in the Department ofZoology and Comparative Physiology in 1959. He worked for a year atHarvard Medical School then returned to Birmingham as a Senior Lecturer in 1968, a position he held until 1987. His former students include SirPaul Nurse winner of the 2001Nobel Prize for Medicine, and Dr Arthur Jones, a proponent ofintelligent design . In 1974 theUniversity of Birmingham awarded him aDSc for his work.During 1987 to 1989 he was Senior Embryological Advisor and Manager of Laboratories at the
IVF /Infertility Clinic of aLondon private hospital. During 1995 to 1996 he was Visiting Professor at theWeizmann Institute ,Israel . From 1996 to 2000 he was a consultant at theUniversity of Warwick jointly to the Ecosystems Unit of the Biology Dept and the Mathematics Institute. He is currently an Honorary Professor at the Mathematics Institute of theUniversity of Warwick and a Visiting Professor atDurham Business School .He has published in prestigious journals such as "Nature" and written textbooks such as "Living Embryos - an Introduction to the Study of Animal Development" (1967) and "Reproduction" (1977). His theory of sperm redundancy [J. Cohen "Nature" 215, 862 - 863 (1967)] has been important in studies of fertility and treatment of infertility. He is a Fellow of the
Institute of Biology .Other Activities
Cohen has worked as a consultant for both
science fiction television shows andscience fiction novelists on how to construct plausible aliens. His collaborators and associated works includeAnne McCaffrey for the "Dragonriders of Pern "; the "Legacy of Heorot" collaboration ofLarry Niven ,Jerry Pournelle andSteven Barnes ; and several works byTerry Pratchett andDavid Gerrold which he helped design theChtorr ecology.He has also collaborated with fellow
University of Warwick researcher Ian Stewart to write deep books onepistemology , and the science of the Discworld.Jack Cohen is a member of the high
IQ society Mensa. He was one of the small group of British Mensans who persuaded science fiction authorIsaac Asimov to visit theUnited Kingdom in June 1974. [http://www.andrew-may.com/asf/asimov.htm]In 1999
Terry Pratchett made both Jack and Professor Ian Stewart "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same ceremony at which theUniversity of Warwick gave Terry Pratchett an honorary degree.His hobbies, according to profiles in the front of his books, include
boomerang -throwing and keeping strange animals.Books
*"
The Science of Discworld ", with Ian Stewart andTerry Pratchett
*"", with Ian Stewart andTerry Pratchett
*"", with Ian Stewart andTerry Pratchett
*"Figments of Reality ", with Ian Stewart (non-fiction)
*"The Collapse of Chaos ", with Ian Stewart (non-fiction)
*"", with Ian Stewart. The American and second editions were published as "What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life"
*"Wheelers", with Ian Stewart (fiction)
*"Heaven" (fiction), with Ian Stewart, ISBN 0-446-52983-4, Aspect (May 2004)
* "Living Embryos", Pergamon (1967)
* "Reproduction", Butterworths (1977)
* "Spermatozoa, Antibodies and Infertility" (1978) with W. F. Hendry
* "Living Embryos" (1981) with B. D. Massey
* "Animal Reproduction: parents making parents" (1984) with B. D. Massey
* "The Privileged Ape" (1989)
* "Stop Working and Start Thinking" (2000) with Graham Medleyelect Quotations
* From "What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life":" [S] cience is the best defense against believing what we want to." (Cohen himself actually gives credit for this quote to his co-author, Stewart).
References
*reflist
External links
* [http://www.drjackcohen.net/ Jack Cohen's home page]
* [http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/NE1000000081565/ Press release about Terry Pratchett "Wizard Making" of Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart at the University of Warwick]
* [http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~susan/sf/cons/cohen.htm Jack Cohen SF talks and publications]
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