Jack CohenFRSB (19 September 1933 – 6 May 2019)[1] was a Britishreproductive biologist also known for his science books and involvement with science fiction.
Cohen was born 19 September 1933 in Norwich,[2] but grew up inStoke Newington.[3] His father was killed shortly after the end of theSecond World War, 1 September 1945. His grandfather was arabbi and Cohen was an observantJew in his youth. He continued to attend the synagogue for cultural reasons. He was married three times and had six children.[3]
Cohen studied atUniversity College, Hull, where he obtained a BSc (external degree of the University of London) in 1954. He obtained his PhD inzoology at the same institution (by thenHull University) in 1957.[4] He went to theUniversity of Birmingham for post-doctoral work and was appointed lecturer in the Department ofZoology andComparative physiology in 1959. He worked for a year atHarvard Medical School then returned toBirmingham as a senior lecturer in 1968, a position he held until 1987. His former students include SirPaul Nurse, winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Medicine. In 1974 theUniversity of Birmingham awarded him aDSc for his work.[5]
From 1987 to 1989 he was senior embryological advisor and manager of laboratories at theIVF/Infertility Clinic of a London private hospital. From 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 was an honorary professor at the Mathematics Institute of theUniversity of Warwick[6] and a visiting professor atDurham Business School.
He published in prestigious journals such asNature and wrote textbooks such asLiving Embryos – an Introduction to the Study of Animal Development (1967) andReproduction (1977). His theory ofsperm redundancy[7] was important in studies of fertility and treatment of infertility. He was a Fellow of theInstitute of Biology.
Cohen worked as a consultant forscience fiction television shows and science fiction novels regarding the creation of plausiblealiens. The writers who acknowledged his assistance includedAnne McCaffrey for theDragonriders of Pern;Harry Harrison for hisEden trilogy;Larry Niven,Jerry Pournelle andSteven Barnes for theirLegacy of Heorot;James White ofSector General fame;[8]David Gerrold for theChtorr ecology; andTerry Pratchett for several works.
Cohen and fellowUniversity of Warwick researcherIan Stewart, a mathematician, collaborated with Terry Pratchett to write fourScience of Discworld books, which accompany hisDiscworld series. Pratchett made them both "Honorary Wizards of the Unseen University" at the same 1999 ceremony where the University of Warwick gave Pratchett an honorary degree. Anne McCaffrey dedicatedAll the Weyrs of Pern (1991) to Jack and Judy Cohen and credited Jack with making fact of her fiction.
Cohen and Stewart also co-authored books onepistemology.
Cohen was a member of the highIQ societyMensa.[9] He was one of the small groups of British Mensans who persuaded science fiction authorIsaac Asimov to visit the United Kingdom in June 1974.[10]
He had a long-standing interest in the design and natural balance of (particularly manmade) lake ecosystems, having designed new filtration systems but also led in reinstating Victorian designed systems at various locations around the UK.
In 2009, he became apatron of the anti-circumcision charityNORM-UK.[11]
His hobbies, according to the author profiles in his books, includedboomerang-throwing and keeping strange animals.
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